Jon Scheyer On His Freshman Class

College basketball renews every year when freshmen arrive and watching them learn and grow is one of the great pleasures of the college game. Some are good enough to go pro quite early but they’re all teenagers and, like all teenagers, they’re growing and adapting to still maturing bodies.

Watching them figure it out is part of what makes college much more fun than the NBA.

This year’s Duke class, according to coach Jon Scheyer, can best be described as “serious.”

“They are very consistent with how they work. They’re on a mission. The two guards – Jared [McCain] and Caleb [Foster] – they’re in here all the time. They have what I like to call translatable games. There’s a lot of times, the way you play in high school doesn’t necessarily translate to the college game.

“I’ve been so impressed by their approach, their demeanor and their seriousness to get better every single day.”

All of them appear to have shown significant flashes. Some early reports suggest that TJ Power has been a real surprise over the summer and via videos we’ve seen some really good things from all four freshmen.

In one recent clip we watched, McCain just kept getting after the ball, diving multiple times over and over again. His offensive reputation is better than his defensive image, but we noticed something that will help him on both ends: McCain has unusually strong thighs. And by unusually strong, we mean ripped. That guy has put in some serious work.

But as Scheyer said, all four are serious. This is going to be a fun group.