When Duke HC Jon Scheyer shared about his “speechless” reaction after knowing he will succeed Coach K: “A special moment I’ll never forget

Duke Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer led his team to the Final Four for the first time since 2019, when legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski aka Coach K, was in charge. Scheyer was Coach K's assistant for nine years before succeeding him in 2022 when he retired.

During a 2022 segment of "The Field of 68" podcast, after he had been appointed, Scheyer revealed his reaction when he was informed that he would be the legendary Coach K's successor (0:10).

"I remember I had my second Zoom call with Nina King and Kevin White who was still our athletic director at the time," Jon Scheyer said. "Nina called me and told me the news that 'We're selecting you to be the next men's basketball coach for Duke.' You talk about quotable, there was no quote, I was speechless. "There was nothing to say and I just remember the first thing I thought was telling my wife and she was upstairs with our kids and I ran upstairs and told her, 'We got it, we got it!' And she's like, 'Got what?' And it's a special moment I will never forget and I facetimed my family and I have screenshots of their faces when I told them the news. I'll never forget that. I knew that a decision was coming near."

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Coach K pushed for Jon Scheyer to succeed him

Sports author Ian O'Connor, who wrote a book about Mike Krzyzewski's legendary career, revealed in his book that the Duke Blue Devils president, Vincent Price, wanted Tommy Amaker to succeed his former coach instead of Jon Scheyer.

Both Amaker and Scheyer played for Coach K but while both had a Duke background, Scheyer had gone back to Durham and become Krzyzewski's assistant in 2013 before he was made the associate head coach in 2018. Meanwhile, Amaker was an assistant at Duke for nine years before taking the Seton Hall Pirates job in 1997.

According to O'Connor, Krzyzewski called Amaker to tell him that the only way back to coaching at Duke was to be Scheyer's assistant rather than the head coach, as he had anticipated.

"Mike had to explain to Tommy why he couldn't be the guy," one Duke source said, according to the book. "He can be Don Corleone when he needs to be."

After pushing for him to be his successor, Coach K has stayed supportive of Jon Scheyer over the years and has continued to stand by him even during the Blue Devils most bleak moments.

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Edited by nagpaltusharn25