The Duke Blue Devils are heading toward the 2026-27 college basketball season with the same kind of pressure that always seems to hang around Durham: high expectations, big talent, and one glaring unfinished business item.
That reality got sharper after Duke’s season ended with a stunning 17-point collapse against UConn in the Elite Eight, a loss that kept the Blue Devils out of the Final Four. It was another painful finish in a stretch that has still been productive under Jon Scheyer. In four seasons, Duke has reached the Elite Eight three times and the Final Four once.
And yet, the larger conversation keeps circling back to the same place. Scheyer has not delivered a national title, and Duke has not played in a championship game during his tenure. For a program that expects to be in the hunt every year, that absence keeps the spotlight fixed on what still hasn’t happened.
Isaac Trotter recently laid out 101 thoughts with less than 100 days left before the season, and one of the early questions he raised was whether Duke can finally get over the hump under Scheyer.
Here is what Trotter had to say:
Scheyer has won 42 of his last 44 games against ACC competition, and yet, the two most memorable games of his career have featured some stunning last-second collapses. One against Houston in the 2025 Final Four (ban loose ball fouls that result in free throws forever) and then last year's meltdown in the Elite Eight against UConn.
All of it is understandable and also remarkably dismissive of one of the game's best coaches.
Scheyer will always have this perception until he wins a National Championship. Can he scale the mountain and dispel the claims once and for all?
That’s the tension around Duke right now. The program has stacked up plenty of success under Scheyer, but the biggest moments have a way of sticking, and the recent ones have left a mark.
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