1. Jon Scheyer (Duke)
Mike Krzyzewski had 42 awesome seasons as head coach at Duke. He brought five national titles to Durham, with immense success at every level during his long tenure. Coach K mentored many professional basketball players and future coaches along the way before announcing his retirement, with Scheyer the one to follow in his shadow. The former Blue Devil guard didn’t buckle up and might have already established himself as the right answer for Duke.
Scheyer arrived on campus in 2006 and left a national champion four seasons later. Scheyer played internationally briefly before returning to the Blue Devils on their coaching staff. Scheyer picked up another national title as an assistant in 2015, but this program has been under his leadership since 2022. He’s averaging nearly 30 wins a year and has seen progress with each passing season. After an Elite Eight in year two, Scheyer took the Blue Devils to the ACC Tournament title and the Final Four this April.
With Cooper Flagg and other talent, Duke was one of the heavy favorites to cut down the nets, though a collapse against Houston marred the end of the season. Even though Flagg and a few others won’t be around next season, you can guarantee that Scheyer will continue to bring great talent into this program. Duke isn’t going anywhere after the coaching change and this year’s team may have proved that Scheyer isn’t Coach K and also that he doesn’t need to be. It’s getting to be a matter of when, not if Scheyer wins his first national title as a head coach.