Jon Scheyer had NBA doors open this offseason, but he stayed put at Duke for one simple reason: he wasn’t ready to walk away from what he’s building in Durham.
That choice mattered because the Dallas Mavericks were serious. After firing Jason Kidd, they zeroed in on Scheyer and former Michigan coach Dusty May as top candidates.
Dallas reportedly “made multiple runs” at Scheyer and even met with him. The fit made sense on paper, too: 2025 No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick Cooper Flagg was coached by Scheyer at Duke, and the Mavericks also have several former Blue Devils on the roster.
In the end, Scheyer passed on the NBA opportunity and remained with the Blue Devils, while May landed the Mavericks job.
For Duke, that was a huge win in itself. Scheyer has already done plenty to justify the trust the program placed in him, but the offseason interest from Dallas underscored just how highly he’s regarded. At the same time, the timing added another layer to his Duke tenure, because his resume is already loaded with success and still shadowed by painful March exits.
In four seasons, Scheyer has guided Duke to three ACC Tournament titles, back-to-back ACC regular-season and tournament championships, four NCAA Tournament trips, two Elite Eight appearances, and a Final Four berth. He also became the fastest coach in ACC history to 100 wins.
But the postseason misses have stung. In 2026, Duke blew a 15-point halftime lead against UConn in the Elite Eight.
A year earlier, the Blue Devils let a 66-59 lead slip away from Houston in the Final Four with under a minute and a half left. Those collapses are still part of the conversation around Scheyer, and they’re the kind of losses that hang around until a coach gets the program all the way to the end.
That’s why his recent comments on the Glue Guys Podcast, hosted by Shane Battier, Alex Smith, and Ravi Gupta, cut straight to the heart of why he stayed.
"Well, anybody that knows me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself not seeing this thing through," Scheyer said. "I mean, that's just the bottom line.
And, you know, I'm at a one-of-one place where not often you get your dream job when you're 33, and that's what happened to me. And, you know, I feel like we've, you know, I'm really proud of the start we've gotten off to and the continuation of what has been built here.
But I think we got so much left to do."
"In some ways it made me even stronger in terms of my dedication and what we have to do here, right. Because I think, when you're presented with something different, it makes you be critical of the position or the place you're at. Although I don't think there's a lot to be critical about here," Scheyer later added.
Duke’s 2026-27 roster gives him a real shot to keep pushing that mission forward. The Blue Devils are set up with experience, continuity, talent, depth, and length - just about everything you’d want in a team built to contend.
And while the NBA may come calling again someday, Scheyer made his stance clear this summer. For now, he’s staying at Duke, where the next chapter is still waiting to be written.
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Jon Scheyer Still Wants One Kind Of Player At Duke
Jon Scheyers recruiting pitch at Duke still starts well beyond points, rebounds and rankings. As he continues the programs long-running emphasis on building around character, he wants players who come with a strong support system and the kind of independence that suggests they can handle more than just the next game. It is a familiar through line from the Mike Krzyzewski era, with families still part of the process and the off-court side of a prospect carrying real weight in Durham.
Scheyers view is that the Duke experience should prepare players for more than basketball success, and that means being ready for adversity, mistakes and the lessons that follow. He believes the right prospects are not only talented enough to fit the Blue Devils, but grounded enough to navigate the hard parts of college life and still grow from them. In his mind, the best fits are the ones who can lean on others without needing to be carried. [Read more 🡒]
Manny Diaz Has Duke Winning With One Problem Fans Will Hate
Manny Diaz has Duke winning, but the financial backdrop around the football program still looks more like a warning sign than a celebration. The Blue Devils roster spending for the 2026 season is estimated between $12 million and $15 million, a figure that leaves them 67th out of 68 Power Four teams and well below the ACC average, even as the team has stayed competitive and carried momentum from last seasons ACC championship into a strong early run this year.
The good news for Duke is that the program plans to spend more on the roster in the future, which should help it keep pace in a league where money increasingly shapes the ceiling. The hard part is less about the plan than the timing, because Diaz has already shown he can win with limited resources in Durham, and that kind of success does not go unnoticed for long. [Read more 🡒]
Manny Diaz Sent A Clear Message After Duke's Road Upset
Dukes 2-0 start got a major boost Saturday in its road upset of Illinois, and the defense was the biggest reason why. After a shaky opening stretch, the Blue Devils tightened everything up and leaned on a unit that held Illinois to just three points in the second half, with safety Andrew Pellicciotta pacing the effort with 11 tackles.
For Manny Diaz, the result fit the kind of identity he has been trying to build. Duke now heads into its first ACC game of the season against Stanford with real momentum, but also with proof that this team can travel, absorb punches and still finish with a defensive edge when it matters most. [Read more 🡒]