Over at CBSSports.com, Gary Parrish has one of the more rational takes on Duke under Jon Scheyer than we’ve seen in a while.
Here’s part of what he said:
“The problem, of course, with consistently assembling rosters that on paper seem good enough to win the whole thing is that it becomes a criticism directed at you if you don’t actually win the whole thing. And this is where Scheyer kind of finds himself now…He’s had three straight teams finish in the top four at KenPom.com but has only one Final Four
to show for it — and zero national titles. And it doesn’t help that his Blue Devils have ended consecutive seasons by blowing double-digit leads against lower-seeded teams.
“But I … am old enough to remember that Roy Williams, Billy Donovan, Bill Self and John Calipari … faced similar questions at different points in their careers about whether they could ‘win the big one.’ As you know, they all eventually did — with Williams ultimately winning three NCAA Tournaments while Donovan and Self got two apiece….
“It’s usually just a matter of time.“
What he might have added to that is this: in the last two seasons, as he notes, Duke faded badly in the final game.
But three of his four Duke teams have finished the season with serious injuries.
In his first year, Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively were greatly limited by injuries. Last year, it was Caleb Foster and Maliq Brown, and, to an extent late in the season, Cooper Flagg, and Patrick Ngongba was still rehabbing after his high school injury.
This year, Ngongba was again injured late, Foster broke a bone in his foot in the regular season finale, and Cameron Boozer played part of the game against UConn with fractures in his orbital socket.
People are going to talk about the lost leads in the final game last season and this season, obviously, but they should also focus on how brilliantly Scheyer adjusted to injuries and still had great seasons.
As Parrish points out, Scheyer has plenty of time.
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