Jon Scheyer opens up following Duke advancing in NCAA Tournament
The No. 4 seeded Duke Blue Devils were certainly handed nothing in their first-round game against the No. 13 seed Vermont Catamounts on Friday night. The Catamounts gave Duke all they could handle and more, before the Blue Devils ultimately pulled away late in the second half for the 64-47 win.
Duke advanced to the second round of the South Region in the NCAA Tournament, where they’ll face the winner of the JMU/Wisconsin matchup.
Following the win, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer took some time to speak with Tracy Wolfson of CBS.
Jon Scheyer was pleased with how Duke battled back on Friday
He was pleased with the way his players battled through some serious adversity vs. the Catamounts.
“They’ve been through a lot this season. This core group of the last two years. These freshman have been terrific. But to bounce back off of not finishing the regular season the way you wanted. Vermont’s tough. They came out ready to play,” Scheyer began. “And I thought we showed a lot of heart. A lot of guts. And I’m really proud of the team.”
Vermont only trailed Duke 34-29 going into halftime. What was Scheyer’s message to his players in the locker room?
“Well, you know, I just told the team at half. It’s a fight. They’re gonna make a run. They’re gonna hit shots at some point. They had 29 points at half. I thought they hit three tough shots. And we just stuck with it. And hung in there. I thought Flip [Filipowski] was terrific, even though what did he have three points? Something like that. I thought he was great though. The way he shared it and passed it and competed,” Scheyer explained.
Duke managed to win by double digits even with Kyle Filipowski only scoring three points. He managed to affect the game in a number of other stat categories, grabbing 12 rebounds, dishing out four assists, and swatting three blocks. The Blue Devils survived a scare from the Catamounts despite turning the ball over nine times and only hitting 6 of 18 threes (33.3%).
Duke got double digit scoring efforts from multiple players (Mark Mitchell, Tyrese Proctor, Jared McCain, and Jeremy Roach). Roach stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Now, the Blue Devils will wait until later tonight when they learn whether their next opponent will be 5th seeded Wisconsin or 12th seeded James Madison.