Jon Scheyer: 'I'm Always Going to Show Up'

New Duke coach is up for the challenge of following Coach K

Jon Scheyer admits he’s not going to get the perfect attendance ribbon, although he came close.

As he was being introduced Friday as the next Blue Devils head coach, replacing Mike Krzyzewski who has led Duke for the last 40 years, Scheyer reflected on his time as a player and assistant to Coach K.

“As I look back on what I’m most proud of in my career, it’s the fact that I never missed a game or practice as a player," Scheyer said. "And I would have never missed a game as a coach, if it wasn’t for my wife deciding she was going to labor early on January 29, 2018.”

Scheyer’s daughter Noa arrived on that day, while the Blue Devils were playing Notre Dame at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke cruised to a 22-point win, but the assistant coach couldn't stay until the end. He rushed to the hospital.

“I made it through the first half,” he recalled. “Then she … Noa, I guess … decided it was time.”

“So that’s a half,” Scheyer admitted. “Half a game.”

He wasn’t done confessing his truancy while a member of Krzyzewski’s staff, however.

“The other time we were playing in Syracuse (Feb. 1, 2020), we’re going to the game, and I felt pain in my stomach," Scheyer said. "A few hours later, I woke up in a hospital in Syracuse, and I’d had my appendix taken out.”

So a game and a half in four years as a player and another six-plus years as a coach. Other than Cal Ripken, no one should cast any side-eye toward Scheyer’s attendance record.

“I say all that, because I do not expect this to be easy,” Scheyer said of his new challenge to run Duke’s program following this season, Krzyzewski’s last. “ .. I don’t expect to be given anything. We do not expect to be given anything … but I’m always going to show up. I’m always going to show up and do whatever it takes to succeed at the highest level here and with the standard that’s been set at Duke.”