The Washington Post On Duke’s Transition

One of the major themes of the early part of the season, and probably the whole season really, is going to be the transition at Duke between Mike Krzyzewski, now retired, and John Scheyer.

Whether it’s intentional or not, one of the emerging traits in Scheyer’s program is that, well, it’s not Krzyzewski’s.

By that we mean the tenor of the program has changed, or appears to have anyway.

No one doubts Krzyzewski’s brilliance or, for that matter, his care and compassion for his players. But we keep hearing different language drifting up. Words like relaxed. Confidence. Headlines like “Duke takes a deep breath with Jon Scheyer.”

You get the idea.

Confidence and Comfortable came from this Washington Post article, where Jeremy Roach said this: “It’s been a smooth transition. Coach Scheyer is always going to give guys that confidence. That’s the biggest thing about Coach Scheyer. He’s going to make you feel comfortable.”

The question, really, is this: can Duke lighten up a bit without compromising standards?

Because when you get down to it, that’s going to be a major theme this year too.