Duke coach Jon Scheyer responds to District Attorney post regarding punch allegations at North Carolina

Duke head basketball coach Jon Scheyer made headlines a little under two weeks ago when, following a loss and courtstorming against rival North Carolina, he claimed a Blue Devils staff member was punched in the face during the postgame celebration. As expected, that accusation went viral.

Video has since emerged of a North Carolina fan throwing a water bottle at the Duke team and hitting a staff member. But no video has yet emerged of the alleged punch that Scheyer mentioned. Because of that, Jeff Niemman, the District Attorney for Chatham and Orange Counties in North Carolina, took to Twitter/X to accuse Scheyer of being wrong in his accusations.

“A week has passed, and what seemed likely is now patently obvious. There is zero evidence that anyone from Duke’s basketball program was “punched in the face” at the Smith Center last week,” Nieman wrote in his post. “Nor is there any evidence that a staffer was ‘trampled on the floor’ or ‘in a complete brawl’, for that matter. Some have asked why I’m talking about this. It’s certainly not because of a sports rivalry. That’s no business of the DA’s Office.

“But I’ve seen firsthand how reckless accusations of violence incite more violence, and that is my business. Someone with the power and influence of a major men’s basketball coach should exercise more discretion before just saying things that can have real-world consequences.”

Scheyer responded to that post on Tuesday night following a win over Syracuse. In his response, Scheyer made it clear that he is not backing down from his claim and even indicated that he could have added even more to them.

“I would like to focus on Syracuse, but I’ll tell you that I know what I saw and I know what happened with our staff after the game. That’s the bottom line,” Scheyer said. “And I’m not going to go and circle back, or get into — I don’t know what was said or wasn’t said, or what people want to, you know, want to claim, but I know what happened. And I’m always going to support our staff in those situations. And again, I could have even said more, and I’m not going to do that. But we’re moving on and really grateful for tonight’s win, but I don’t want to go back.”

While many will continue to point out the lack of evidence of a punch, Scheyer and the Blue Devils are choosing to move forward. Duke won its third straight game since the North Carolina upset with the win over Syracuse.

Saturday will be, arguably, the biggest game of Duke’s season. The Blue Devils will be in Washington, D.C., to face Michigan, the No. 1 team in America. The game will start at 5:30 p.m. ET.