Jeremy Roach on Jon Scheyer: 'People don't know how hard his job is'
Duke fell short of some ultimate goals of a Final Four and a national championship in 2024, but the Blue Devils had a successful campaign by most measures. But life isn’t easy at the top for second-year head coach Jon Scheyer, who is coaching in the shadow of his successor, basketball legend Mike Krzyzewski.
So after the No. 4 seed Blue Devils got bounced in the Elite Eight by No. 11 seed NC State, veteran point guard Jeremy Roach was quick to stick up for Scheyer. He said outsiders would struggle to understand the pressure of leading one of the premiere programs not just in college basketball, but college sports.
“Like people don’t know how hard his job is,” Roach said. “People don’t know how hard his job is that you are taking over after the GOAT. That’s not easy work. Just give credit to him. He is always instilling confidence in us every day. Whether we’re messing up or not, he just always has that strong face. A lot of people would have folded in this situation. All the criticism that people say, I mean, it’s unacceptable. There’s no reason for that. If somebody wanted to, try doing his job and see how easy it is. So I give credit to Coach Scheyer. I love him.”
And Roach was quick to point out that the Duke men’s basketball program has been clipping along with the usual level of success since Scheyer took over. His main sins, seemingly, are not making a Final Four or winning the ACC regular season title — he guided the Blue Devils to an ACC Tournament Championship in 2023.
Coming off an Elite Eight appearance this year, Scheyer has now led his team into the NCAA Tournament both years and won at least a game each year. His overall record as a head coach sits at 54-18, or 75%.
During his time at Duke, Krzyzewski’s winning percentage was in the same ballpark: 78.5%.
So Roach’s message was ultimately simple: The results might not be exactly what everyone had hoped, but the Blue Devils are doing just fine.
And if Duke keeps it up like this year to year — and with the excellent recruiting under Scheyer — Roach seems keen on the Blue Devils getting back to the Final Four sooner, rather than later.
“The program is right where it left off,” Roach, who played for both coaches, said. “We’ve been Top 10 in the country for both years. We got to the Elite Eight this year.”