Duke Basketball: Jon Scheyer Touts 'Togetherness' of Blue Devils

Despite looking shaky at times, Jon Scheyer's Duke basketball team posted an admirable record in January.

Photo credit: Brian Bishop-USA TODAY Sports

By tallying a 77-67 win over unranked Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Monday night, Duke basketball wrapped up its January slate with a 7-1 record, including a 4-0 mark on the road. That's the program's best overall record in a month since February 2022 (also 7-1); those Blue Devils reached the Final Four in Mike Krzyzewski's final season.

Against the Hokies, the No. 7 Blue Devils (16-4, 7-2 ACC), coming off Saturday's nail-biter 72-71 home win over Clemson, enjoyed double-digit scoring performances by four players. And all seven who received double-digit minutes scored at least eight points.

Here's what second-year head coach Jon Scheyer said in his opening statement to the media following the encouraging victory in Cassell Coliseum, where Duke had lost two straight entering the contest:

"Really good road win. A lot of respect for Virginia Tech and what they're capable of doing and the team that they have. They return a lot of the team that beat us here last year. And shoot, [Hunter] Cattoor, we've played against him a lot.

"I just thought our team had great togetherness, some timely threes, and some guys stepped up in key moments. I thought Ryan Young, just in his 14 minutes, was terrific. His three offensive rebounds. Probably one of the best plays of the game was he switched out to Cattoor, then came back in for the block, which is just a huge play at a big time.

Got up with @TyreseProctor & @ryanyoung2323 after the big road dub at 🦃🦃🦃 pic.twitter.com/dH6qlZFUcE

— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) January 30, 2024

"I think it was our defense. To hold this team to six threes is not easy, I can promise you, especially on one-day prep. They run so many tough actions, misdirections. You have to have great communication. We did that. I thought our guards really controlled the game, and then [Kyle Filipowski] came through down the stretch, just playing through him a little bit.

"Proud of this win. You get a chance to play two games in three days, and to win both of them is really good. Looking forward to building from here."

NEXT DUKE BASKETBALL GAME: at No. 3 UNC (17-3, 9-0 ACC), 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday (ESPN)

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