- Reed Sheppard assign contact with duke blue devil basketball team today
- For years, Jon Scheyer watched from the sidelines as Mike Krzyzewski led Duke against the premier teams in college basketball.
But Scheyer has put his stamp on Duke’s program in his second season as head coach. With a recent commitment from five-star prospect Cooper Flagg, a potential No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, the 36-year-old head coach showed he can position Duke to continue competing for more national titles. That’s significant. With an icon like Krzyzewski attached to the program, there were concerns Scheyer couldn’t escape that shadow.
Now this is beginning to look like Scheyer’s program. He has embraced the name, image and likeness (NIL) era. He’s willing to take players from the transfer portal if they can help him win. And he has leaned into the praise and the doubts he’s encountered since he succeeded one of the greatest coaches in college basketball history.
- A win over Michigan State and Tom Izzo in the Champions Classic Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) would solidify this new era at Duke. Scheyer is the youngest coach in the field, which also includes Kansas’ Bill Self and Kentucky’s John Calipari, whose teams will square off in the nightcap (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). But Scheyer has displayed the confidence to suggest that he, too, can keep up with the best coaches in the game.
As we get set for a matchup of four of the most well-known programs in the sport, here’s why each of these coaches and their teams will — and won’t — win tonight.

