Scheyer is ready to move on and win this season now.
While the past couple of seasons haven't gone as perfectly planned for Duke when it has had a chance to win a national title, it isn't unfair to suggest that the Blue Devils have been the best team in the country.
Unfortunately for Duke, the simple fact is that it just hasn't been able to win it all when it matters most. I'm very curious to see when and if that's going to change under head coach Jon Scheyer, but he's clearly the guy for it to happen.
Scheyer's done nothing but win at Duke, and the last thing he needs to do is just get that national title to put him over the top. Once he does that, he's going to be highly regarded as arguably the best coach in all of college basketball, if he's not right now. However, as Duke enters next season, it does feel like it has some weight on its shoulders to get the job done.
With this current roster, Duke is probably the best team in America outside of Florida, and there really isn't an argument about that. I'd even go as far as to say that on any given night, Florida and Duke would be about a 50/50 split in terms of who would win the game if they played one another.
Regardless, that isn't something that Scheyer can really worry about right now, as the past is the past. His job right now is to ensure that Duke has a chance to win games at a very high level, and that's something that he made well known when speaking to reporters recently.
He feels like last year's team was really good and is going to be tough to replicate, but it's about building upon what this team can do.
“You can make an excuse and say it’s one play, or you can say what I would call an opportunity battle,” Scheyer said, per The Athletic.
“You have to be careful of just analyzing one game. For me, I look at it from a full scope and full perspective, and there’s some really good things we did, last year’s team, that’s hard to replicate. … It’s about building the base as much as it is a couple of takeaways in that game.”
Duke literally lost last year because of one shot against UConn in March Madness, a shot that probably isn't hit eight or nine out of 10 times.
It is what it is, and Duke obviously can't go back and have that shot not be made, but it does go to show how close it has been recently to winning a national title. Scheyer will enter this season with some pressure to get the job done, and if he doesn't do it this year, that noise is only going to get louder.
