Duke's Jon Scheyer Doesn't Guarantee Playing Time, and He's Right for Doing So

Top teams in America year in and year out continue to show that just because they land a big-time freshman, it doesn't mean they're going to play right away. For a program like Duke, and the guys it recruits, that's an unfortunate reality. 

Teams could land some of the best players in high school basketball, but that doesn't mean it's going to translate at the highest level in college. 

We've seen it happen before, and we're going to see it happen again. However, that's something recruits need to keep in mind when Duke is recruiting them. Speaking about this process recently, I actually think it's a good thing that Jon Scheyer made the comments he did about the recruiting process and earning minutes as a whole on his team. 

Scheyer isn't going to hand anything out to any player, no matter what they did in high school or college before coming to Duke, if they were landed in the transfer portal.

"One of the ways we build our foundation starts with the recruiting process. I'm not promising an exact role, starting spot, whatever it may be...

"Whether you're a guy in our program that's been here two or three years, whether you're an incoming freshman, whatever your ranking is, it doesn't matter at the end of the day. It's about what you do and what you earn. And that goes for our program as well; we're not entitled to any wins this season. And so, before we start talking about big-picture goals that we have, we talk about winning the day,” Scheyer said, per Matt Giles.

At the same time, while Scheyer says this and I agree that there are cases where this is certainly the case, I do believe there are scenarios where Scheyer tells an incoming freshman that he has a real opportunity to start right away. 

For example, a guy like Cameron Boozer was probably told that he would have a starting job. The reason for that is because certain recruits probably wouldn't commit to Duke when other schools would tell them similar things.