Jon Scheyer Is Who We Thought He Was

It happened again.

For the second consecutive season, the Duke Blue Devils snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the NCAA Tournament. One year after fumbling away a 14-point second half lead to Houston in the Final Four, Duke one-upped themselves by choking down a 15-point second half lead to UConn in the Elite Eight.

Until Sunday night, #1 seeds were 134-0 all-tie when leading by at least fifteen points at halftime. In the process, the Blue Devils allowed the Huskies to complete the second- largest comeback in Elite Eight history.

And there’s only man to blame.

No, not freshman point guard Cayden Boozer, who turned the ball over at midcourt in the final seconds to set up Braylon Mullins’ 35-foot game-winning three pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining. Boozer was a backup all season who only got forced into full-time action late in the season after starting point guard Caleb Foster went down with injury. He shouldn’t have been put in that position in the first place. The one to blame is none other than Duke head coach Jon Scheyer. And what’s worse, it was so predictable we almost expected it to happen.

Losing a close game in March Madness is normally nothing to be ashamed about as the one-and-done format lends itself to buzzer beaters and miracle finishes. The problem is, Scheyer has made a living choking away games in the tournament during his coaching career. In 2024, Duke blew a 9-point lead to 11-seeded NC State and wound up losing by twelve. In 2025, Duke only made one basket it the final ten minutes of

regulation as they frittered away a 6-point lead in the final 60 seconds of a loss to Houston. This season, they blew a 19-point first half lead in their loss to UConn.

Back in February, when a reporter questioned Scheyer about his penchant for blowing big leads, Scheyer fired back rhetorically, ‘How do you want us to lose?’. Well not like this, Jon. Scheyer has become college basketball’s version of Doc Rivers. Despite lording over rosters led by Hall of Fame talents like Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Chris Paul, James Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rivers has lost three playoff series after being up 3-1. Historically, NBA teams who go up 3-1 go on to win the series 95.6% of the time. Comparatively, Scheyer’s last two tournament losses have each come while holding a win probability of over 97.3%. And, like Rivers, his rosters were loaded with talent. The Blue Devils have had the top-rated recruiting class in three of the last four years. In fact, Scheyer has coached the National Player of the Year (Cooper Flagg in ’25 and Cameron Boozer in ’26) in successive seasons.

Look, Scheyer’s 70-7 record over the past two regular seasons is nothing to sneeze it. Most programs would kill for that level of success. But when you’re the handpicked successor to a legend like Mike Krzyzewski, regular season records don’t matter all that much. Duke is in the championship business, and so far, it’s fair to question if Scheyer is the man for the job.