Duke head coach Jon Scheyer has done just an OK job during the NCAA Tournament. In fact, I’d even go as far as to say that he needs to be better.
The Blue Devils barely survived against Siena but bounced back nicely with a win over TCU. Cameron Boozer had 19 points but it felt like he could’ve done a lot more.
Heading into this game against St. John’s, Scheyer knows that he needs to get Boozer the basketball more early on, and that falls on the coaching staff.
“We can’t let the whole half go by without him getting a shot,” Scheyer said, per Yahoo. “But again, the thing is, he impacts the game in all ways. You look at his defense, rebounding, and then obviously how he asserted himself in the second half, that’s how we got separation.”
With Friday’s game bringing some questions, Duke will need Boozer to be better than ever. St. John’s is physical and will push him around all night.
But what makes Boozer different, and why no one should be worried, is that he’s physical too.
“We’ve been pressured by teams before,” Cayden Boozer said. “It’s not like the first time we are seeing this. Obviously, it’s going to be shown a lot more because we’re in the tournament…but we’ve faced all year, so we’re prepared for it.”
“We played a lot of physical teams. We played teams that want to push the tempo, that want to pressure us, so it’s not a new scout for us,” Boozer added.
Scheyer believes his team’s physicality will be a plus in this game, as he views Duke as a physical team.
“They are very physical, they make it tough on you on both ends in the paint,” Scheyer said about St. John’s. “At the same time that's been our strength. We don't want to get away from who we've been. You think about the schedule we've played, I think it's prepared us to be in moments like this, to understand what it takes.”
Whatever it takes, Duke needs Boozer to be on his A game and a lot of that will fall on what Scheyer schemes up.