After landing Cooper Flagg, Jon Scheyer is dominating the recruiting world in just 2 years as Duke's head coach
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer got the biggest recruiting win of his career so far after the No. 1 player in the country, Cooper Flagg, committed to the Blue Devils. The 6-foot-8 forward chose the Blue Devils over the UConn Huskies, who are defending national champions.
Scheyer and his staff now have the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation for the 2024 high school class and are still in the mix for five-stars Dylan Harper and V.J. Edgecombe. Duke dominated the recruiting trail under Mike Krzyzewski, and Scheyer has picked off right where he left off.
When Krzyzewski retired after 42 years as the Duke head coach, winning five NCAA men's basketball championships, appearing in 13 Final Fours and sending several players to the NBA, many wondered what the next wave of Duke leadership would bring.
Krzyzewski appointed Scheyer, an assistant coach and former Duke guard, as his successor and he stepped in with big shoes to fill. Prior to his first season as head coach, he brought in a No. 1 recruiting class that included five five-star recruits: Dereck Lively II, Dariq Whitehead, Kyle Filipowski, Mark Mitchell and Tyrese Proctor, something that no other Division I coach has done in their first year running the program.
“Coach Scheyer is a great coach and he knows how to get the best out of his players,” Whitehead told Yahoo Sports after committing to Duke. “I know I’m going to get the best competition in practice and playing in the ACC. Just with the history and how they develop players, it was the best fit for me.”
In Scheyer’s first season as head coach, he won the ACC tournament, becoming the first person in NCAA history to win the tournament as a coach (2023) and player (2010). The Blue Devils finished with a 27-9 record and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Tennessee.
Immediately following the end of his first season, Scheyer and his staff got to work, first retaining key players. Proctor, a native from Australia and from the NBA Global Academy, had reclassified up a grade prior to joining the Blue Devils and elected to return for his sophomore season to improve his draft stock and mature a little more into his game. Filipowski, a 7-foot center, underwent double hip surgery last spring and looks to be moving well in preseason scrimmages. Starting point guard Jeremy Roach returned for his senior season after averaging 13.6 points and 3.1 assists per game last season.
Duke lost only two players to the 2023 NBA Draft. Lively was selected No. 12 overall by the Thunder before being traded to the Mavericks, and the Nets selected Whitehead with the No. 22 pick.
Alongside Filipowski and Proctor, two projected first-round picks in the 2024 NBA Draft, Duke also brought in the No. 2 recruiting class in the country led by five-stars Jared McCain and TJ Power and four-stars Sean Stewart and Caleb Foster. In three short years recruiting for the Duke program, Scheyer and his staff have landed nine five-star recruits and four four-stars.
Duke enters the 2023-24 season as the No. 2-ranked team in the country (behind Kansas), according to the preseason Associated Press poll. Scheyer recently signed a six-year contract extension that will take him through the 2028-29 season. Blue Devil fans around the country and the Cameron Crazies enjoyed being atop of the recruiting world under Hall of Fame coach Krzyzewski and Scheyer has picked up right where he left off as Duke continues to dominate the recruiting trail and land big-time players.
