GREENSBORO, NC — Early lyrics are ringing out, breathing through the speakers of the Greensboro Coliseum. Apart from all the images (the shower of blue and white confetti, the full grayness syncopated in celebration of the fist), nothing can distract or merge from the dance of the Cascada, and it climaxes at the perfect moment;
“I can’t let you go, I want you in my life…”
As the script opens the story of the night, the words fade away and a man emerges from the crowd of cameras: John Sher, the freshman head coach. With this being Scheyer’s 14th season with the Blue Devils (four as a player, nine as an assistant coach and now leading the program), he is familiar with this landscape. Music. destruction The center stage is assembled in the center of the region, and the ACC championship trophy will be awarded. He has been here four times before and was named MVP of this tournament.
But this is different, because I have never been in charge of this thing before. Now, as the 35-year-old captain of one of the hottest bloods in college basketball, he’s in charge of everything from the X’s and O’s to the coaching staff. (For Saturday’s 59-49 win over Virginia, black hoodies with matching woolen jackets).
and this is it? The goal of the 22nd ACC championship, after three wins in three days over three teams the Duke lost earlier this season?
Damn, he’s responsible here too.
In doing so, Scheer became only the third coach to win an ACC championship in his senior season, behind Vic Popes and Bill Gourtridge, and the first in 25 years. He is also now the only person in friendly history to win the conference championship as both a player and head coach. Dozens of coaches have gone their entire careers away from being infected, and yet here’s Scheyer, all 34 games into his coaching career, making history.
oh yeah And he did it less than a calendar year after replacing the winningest coach in college basketball history, Mike Krzyzewski.
“A lot of people say, maybe they want this job, but do they really want this job and everything that comes with it?” Sheer’s father Jim, an athlete, said. “We have always talked about great boldness, boldly boldly. Doing the right thing, and I think that’s what we’re most proud of.
Jim paused for a moment, craning his neck at the whole spectacle: “And clearly,” he said, “it’s a wonderful thing.”
Kyle Filipowski was named MVP of the ACC Tournament. (John David Mercer / USA Today)
This, of course, is not the profession of a caper.
But… look at this, right?
“I mean, we know,” said athletic director Nina King. ‘All see’, he is the Leader. Great players, need great coaching now and. That is, what else do you say?
A lot actually. When Scheyer’s successor was first named Krzyewski in the summer of 2021, it was done on purpose to give him a platform. An 11-month internship, basically. There were critics of that policy, both internal and external, of the dynamic balance of power; Most teachers quit, walk away, decide they’ve had enough, and leave the hot seat behind when they leave. The leader did not do it on the road. He tried to prioritize continuity from the 10,000-foot level, avoiding any real or perceived decline after decades of dominance.
“Something can be said to the coaches, but not everyone believes or believes, wanting the program to continue at such a level, and he did,” said County. “To give me the opportunity to recruit these people… that never happened. To me, it was about the trust we had in each other and it started at that moment.”
Scheyer made it out of time. Ambitious decision, to be sure: Take the best talent of any school in America to come to Duke and play for someone who has never been a head coach at any level before.
but himself. When Terese Proctor, the Australian guard whose game Scheer loved and who chased Virginia’s Keith Clarke on 1-of-9 6-point shooting Saturday night, played a tournament in Las Vegas, Scheer was there watching and calling every game. After her with the notes. “Give me some advice,” said Proctor, before officially signing off. Same with Derek Lively II, at No. 1 recruit in the country is considered by many. “He was really the only coach I could build a relationship with; that’s why I came here,” Vive said. “I felt like he was the most real person to me.” Dirty Problem and fitting into the Leader’s system, Scheer was able to be brutally honest with him and get a positive response.
Since then, Viva has been, as Scheyer often puts it, a “unicorn” defense, a 7-foot shadow that can somehow cover both guards and centers.
In a sense, it is likely that this approach should be seen. Since Scheyer was one of Krzyzewski’s assistant managers in recruiting current team leader Jeremy Roach, who scored 19 of his career-high 23 points in the second half Saturday, including several late-game free throws, he became the first man to reach the team leader’s five-year mark. the star leads Then, when the senior Roach tore his ACL, Scheer was the first to be there again.
“It was like I’m still with you,” Roach said. “You have overcome everything, even with this injury, as if we are still with you. We still want you to come here. That meant a lot to me, and when your coach has a lot of faith in you, you have to be on top. “adequate degree”
Scheyer’s team certainly did this week, capping a nine-game winning streak that is now among the longest in the region. He went from a very good defensive team to a legitimate selection of the top 20 national team since early February, according to Bartorvik. This last week, crime has risen to an equivalent level. The Chiefs scored more than a thousand points per possession against Pittsburgh and Miami, more than the last four teams have seen in the finals of the season. It wasn’t great Saturday, against the Virginia defense, but the Blue Devils still enjoyed an average of 1 PPG, led in large part by Roach and Championship MVP Kyle Filipowski.
John Shier inherited the leadership of the last four points in Jeremy Roach, then surrounded him with the best fleet in the country. (Bob Doonan / USA Today)
Speaking of Filipowski, his Scheyer story is probably the best of them all. Before the 7-foot quarterback, who scored 20 points and scored 16 double-doubles of the season against the only team that hasn’t scored a goal all year, formally committed, he recalls a phone call with Cher. They were dealing with championships they wanted to win and overlapping visions of what could be done in Duke 2.0.
Filipovski said with a laugh in the copper room, a net knotted around the left side of his ball cap. “I’m just taking this as a small sample. I felt deep down that I wanted to do this with Coach Cher.”
It’s not just gamers who have these stories of faith, these seemingly hyperbolic instincts that they trust for the first time. When Krzyzewski first announced his resignation to his staff several months ago, associate director Chris Carwell was at the sixth floor conference where it happened, immediately announcing the vote for Scheyer’s successor. “I told you to have it,” Carwell said Saturday. “He’s always had a book, so he doesn’t move me. But when you’re in this seat, it’s a different seat. That balance, a sense of unusual resilience, is a common refrain among people who know Sheer best. Special assistant Mike Schrag was in the lead band when Scherr was the player. was: “When he was 18 years old, 19 years old,” Schrag said. “It’s not too big.” So when Scheyer came up last season and offered Schrage a staff position, the former Elon coach decided to accept, even making the difficult decision to leave his show in the process.
None of these ways are normal. But these are the things that made Scheyer the ball-winning shooter in defense of Krzyzewski, then a trained recruit and now the leader of one of America’s greatest recruiting teams.
“All I can say is, when I was young, speaking the truth when I was young, I thought I was going to do it,” County said. “My team was going to win. It didn’t always win, but it found a way at every level. Whether it’s unequivocal or not, he felt this.
That inner spirit is why, despite Duke’s rocky debut at the time, Cher has stayed on track. With injuries to Lively, Roach and Dariq Whitehead, the players were in and out of the lineup, and the assistant did not hesitate to believe that everything was working. A peasant might say this. At risk of failure, or even error.
But Scheyer’s parents always knew he wasn’t in a good mood. He is the head coach, and always will be.
“He’s always a man who doesn’t apologize,” he told his mother, Lori.
Jim adds, “And he always faced adversity and used it as a way to grow.”
Scheyer brought back four point guards in Roach and added to the #1 recruiting class in the country this summer. Let’s not forget: the players created all this, they left victories, trophies and clever traces. Finally, the top 10 talent team is playing like this, hitting the gas at the right time.
But Ugoni led them there. Damages from the explosion, for “considered closed”.
In less than a year, the personality of the show has been released, so that immaculate views flow into every opening.
Now what next, Duke? The SPORTS game is notoriously fickle, the beauty of it is that any team can go down at any time. (See some of Scheyer’s most famous teams that Scheyer has worked on before, from the unexpected first issue in the series).
But whatever comes next does not detract from what Cherius has already done. He took a stable property, which was always in some way possessed by another, and did so almost immediately. So give it a try, as Scheer’s parents and his wife Marcel were at the Greensboro Coliseum. “Someone takes a picture,” said Marcelle, wanting to record this moment as graphically as possible. By the time County climbed the ladder below the gridiron, it was 10:58 a.m., a 20-minute celebration that showed no sign of slowing down.
Then he flew into a rage, throwing the whole family of Scheyer after the first deed. Follow-up later plan. But that was always before.
“This show has been building for a long time. It’s going to be here for a long time, said Schrag. “Whatever happens with this group, I think the foundation will be built, but it’s a lot of fun to see somehow. click now.”
(Top photo: Dona Halverson/Getty Images)
