A Look At How Jon Scheyer Won Over His First Recruiting Class

ESPN’s Paul Biancardi weighs in here on Jon Scheyer’s first recruiting class at Duke. We don't think we need to mention it to this crowd, but in case you somehow missed it, he will replace Mike Krzyzewski after his retirement next spring following the conclusion of the season.

Biancardi loves the class for talent and, well, class, which in basketball terms is largely defined by unselfish play.

Biancardi told the Fayetteville Observer’s Chapel Fowler that “what I love about all of them is that not only are they talented, but they’re unselfish. For Jon, having guys who are high character is important for that first year – you want to have guys that are highly projected and low maintenance.”

Sounds like Mission Accomplished.

All of Duke’s current recruits - Dereck Lively, Kyle Filipowski, Dariq Whitehead and Jaden Schutt - are highly regarded. The first three are likely NBA picks while Schutt is probably underrated. He’s a superb shooter but what caught our eye is how dedicated and serious he is as a very young player. You don’t see a lot of guys his age discussing nutrition and diet as key factors in their development. He’s quite serious and in some ways probably ahead of his future teammates.

Duke and UCLA are still waiting to hear from Kansan Mark Mitchell. We thought Kansas would be a favorite but apparently Mitchell likes the idea of playing well away from or at the least has no problem with it.

On a side note, we believe Filipowski’s twin brother, Matt, has yet to choose a school. Said to be an excellent shotblocker, he’s also gotten ACC interest.

While we don’t expect this scenario to happen with the Filipowskis and have no indication that anyone has even thought of it, here’s something to consider because eventually it might: imagine that two bothers or perhaps just close teammates developed on different paths. Let’s imagine that Lively, for instance, has a twin brother who isn’t as committed to the game.

Now imagine that a guy like that (the better player) commits somewhere, gets huge NIL money and decides to use it to bring the other guy as a walk-on. Or even funnier, imagine someone’s mother saying “don’t leave your brother out!”

Obviously this would be easier at a public school than Duke which has sky-high tuition. We could easily see someone, say John Calipari or Hubert Davis, just seeing an arrangement like this as lagniappe from heaven, somewhat like Burt Reynolds’ face in that scene in Boogie Nights when Dirk says “Jack? I can do it again if you need a closeup.”