As winter arrives, children across the world race to fit in enough good deeds to get on Santa’s nice list—at least, that’s what the yearly inundation of holiday movies tells us. It seems, though, that too
many college coaches have missed those reruns this year.
High level college coaches are not known for their scruples by any means. Still, the way their antics have dominated the headlines this month has been startling. Following losses to Duke, both Florida coach Todd Golden and Michigan State coach Tom Izzo both went out of their way to criticize officiating—making sure the story was more about them then the athletes. UConn coach Bobby Hurley similarly makes everything about him and his antics every time his team steps on the floor. Not to be outdone, Lane Kiffin recently made arguably the most selfish decision in the history of college football, leaving a team still competing for a National Title for a job at a conference rival.
While distasteful, those dynamics are to some degree always part of the story in modern college athletics. However, the behavior of Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua—embarking upon grievance tour through the media after his football team was left out of the College Football Playoff—is largely unprecedented and could have lasting repercussions for his school. That’s not to mention the once-in-a-lifetime fall from grace of Michigan football’s Sherrone Moore, a story which continues to evolve in new and more embarrassing ways by the day.
Collectively, misbehavior from those in powerful positions in college athletics is nothing new. After all, these positions almost automatically self-select for some level of narcissism; in the rare cases in which a pure soul does succeed, absolute power inevitably corrupts absolutely. It’s nonetheless jarring to see so many stories of this narcissism gone awry—ranging in severity from innocuous but childish whining to frighteningly dangerous abuses of power—juxtaposed over a few weeks.
This is all the more reason why Duke fans should appreciate Jon Scheyer this holiday season, just as much for his behavior off the court as his 10-0 start on it. Make no mistake, Scheyer is by no means perfect, and anyone who convinces themselves otherwise based on his public persona and Duke’s carefully curated social media content needs a history lesson (and maybe to read the sequels to Frank Herbert’s Dune—hero worship never ends well). Still, more than three years into his tenure, Scheyer continues to hold himself to a standard that many of his elder peers would do well to emulate.
After victories over Golden’s Gator’s and Izzo’s Spartans, Scheyer could have gloated. Instead, he made sure, in the opening minutes of his press availability, to go out of his way to show respect for both his colleagues and extol the virtues of their players. Such behavior seems like it should be the norm, and yet more and more it has become the exception.
Perhaps more impressive is how those who have left the Blue Devils speak of the program and Scheyer. Before playing his former squad in the NCAA Tournament last season, the sports media all but begged Baylor’s Jeremy Roach to say something bad about his Duke experience to add fuel to the “revenge game” narrative. He never took the bait. Similarly, every former Blue Devil entering the NBA ranks has nothing but high praise for how Scheyer and his program prepare them for the next level—heck, even Cedric Coward, who never officially donned a Duke uniform after committing in the transfer portal, highlighted Scheyer’s support as he made his NBA Draft decision. There are dozens of stories of players who have aired copious grievances after leaving a program either via the transfer portal or NBA Draft—including many from the state of North Carolina alone.
Just like any public figure, outsiders still will never know whether Scheyer is truly on Santa’s nice list. But there are plenty of leaders in college athletics who are certainly on the naughty list. Add that to the overflowing list of things Duke fans should be thankful for this holiday season.
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