Will Jon Scheyer Change Duke Recruiting?

Although Kyrie Irving was not the first Blue Devil to go pro after his freshman year, he is sort of the Rubicon for Duke when it comes to players going pro early.

Since he left Duke, a lot of other guys have done so too: Austin Rivers, Jabari Parker, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, Jahlil Okafor, Brandon Ingram, Jayson Tatum, Harry Giles, Frank Jackson, Trevon Duval, Gary Trent, Wendell Carter, Marvin Bagley, Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish, RJ Barrett, Vernon Carey, Cassius Stanley, Jalen Johnson and DJ Steward have left after one year to play professionally. This year, Paolo Banchero, AJ Griffin and Trevor Keels are likely to follow them and that list doesn’t count guys who left after their sophomore season.

Jon Scheyer’s insane recruiting suggests that Duke will continue recruiting high-level talent and the one-and-done thing will continue.

This article asks whether Scheyer will make the Final Four next season to which we say obviously the odds are against him doing that just as they are against any coach doing that.

But Mike Krzyzewski did it a hell of a lot so people will expect Scheyer to do it as well and some will see it as a failure if he doesn’t.

The question that Jason Owens asks is if the one-and-done recruiting works against him or anyone trying make a deep run in March and April.

Scheyer has made clear that he plans to put his own stamp on the program and we already know some ways that his recruiting goals are going to be different than Mike Krzyzewski’s were.

What we don’t know, in the long term, if he plans to tweak the formula, perhaps through the portal or perhaps by recruiting players who stay longer somewhat like Michigan State or Villanova.

It’s going to be really interesting to see how his program evolves in the next few years, most likely in ways that none of us, or at least very few, can anticipate.