Coach K on Why Jon Scheyer Is the Right Choice

Krzyzewski discusses his former player and lead assistant

Duke associate head coach Jon Scheyer will replace Mike Krzyzewski as the Blue Devils head coach following this season. Scheyer is 33 and has one game of head coaching experience—as Duke’s interim coach this past season when Coach K was serving a quarantine after possible COVID exposure. But Krzyzewski is confident that Scheyer is the right choice.

"You can look at the 2010 national championship,” he said. “I believed in him and Nolan [Smith] running our team. Any of the guys who work for me, they were my former captains. They all had great resumes, and I tell all of them when they come on, 'I only want you here if you want to be a head coach.' What I've learned is to give them all these responsibilities where they didn't have different things – they do everything. Jon's done everything, and in the last few years, we've taken it up to another level. He's one of the smartest coaches in the country, to be quite frank with you. Nobody knows that as well as I do, and Chris [Carrawell] and Nolan know it. The players know it. It's ironic – he's 33, I was 33 when I was [hired] here. My main wish for him is not to replicate my first three years. That wouldn't be good. Although, Nina [King, Duke’s athletic director], maybe it'd be a time for great belief."

Krzyzewski credits the patience of then Duke A.D. Tom Butters for not replacing him after three mostly unsuccessful years as Duke’s head coach.