Remember the sense of angst that Duke fans had when Jeff Capel left for Pitt? The sense that maybe he was such a good recruiter that he might take some of the magic with him?
He’s done a solid job at Pitt, but the angst was overblown. As it turns out, to borrow from Yoda, there was another.
Jon Scheyer has turned out to be a phenomenal recruiter.
He started as an assistant to Mike Krzyzewski in 2014 – Capel left in 2018 – and either helped to recruit or directed the recruitment of players like Jayson Tatum, RJ Barrett, Zion Williamson, Paolo Banchero, Mark Williams, Dereck Lively, Cooper Flagg and now the Boozer twins, among others.
For most coaches, any of those would be a career highlight. Can you imagine if Brad Brownell had landed Williamson, as he nearly did? Jim Larranaga has been a head coach since 1986, other than an earlier two-year stint at American International, and has never landed a player as highly rated as Cameron Boozer.
To be sure, Scheyer has a nice perch. Coaching at Duke gives you a lot of advantages. Keep in mind though that he’s doing this in a time of massive change in college sports. It’s absolutely incredible.
