Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer missed Blue Devils’ ACC road game at SMU. Here’s why

An illness prevented Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer from traveling to Dallas to coach the No. 4 Blue Devils when they beat Southern Methodist, 89-62, at Moody Coliseum on Saturday.

Scheyer is suffering from flu symptoms and was unable to travel Friday on the team charter to Dallas. He remained too sick to travel Saturday morning, which meant associate coach Chris Carrawell coached the Blue Devils (12-2, 4-0 ACC) in a key ACC game against SMU (11-3, 2-1 ACC).

“I just want to shout out my guy, coach Scheyer, who I know he wanted to be here,” Carrawell said after the game. “You know, he was texting, calling, bothering us, because he cared so much. And I want to thank our team and our coaching staff.”

A statement from Duke athletics said Scheyer is expected to return for Tuesday night’s 7 p.m. ACC game against Pittsburgh at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Though Duke held out hope Scheyer’s health would improve enough for him to travel to Dallas on Saturday morning, Carrawell said he knew Friday night he’d be the team’s head coach against an SMU team that entered the game on a seven-game winning streak.

Fellow associate head coach Jai Lucas prepared Duke’s scouting report and the players executed it well.

“Our guys, with their prep, did an excellent job,” Carrawell said. “Coach Lucas had this scout and we were prepared. I didn’t. There wasn’t really a lot to say. Your thinking, do I go and give my Knute Rockne speech? These guys don’t know who Knute Rockne is. But I knew they were ready.”

This is the first game the 37-year-old Scheyer has missed since taking over the program following Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement in 2022. The Blue Devils are now 66-20, including 33-11 in ACC play, with Scheyer as their head coach as Saturday’s game will go on his record even though he was absent.

It’s incredibly rare for Scheyer to miss any Duke game since he became part of the program as a player in 2006. During his four seasons, culminating with the 2010 NCAA championship, Scheyer played in all of the team’s 144 games.

Since returning to Duke to begin his coaching career in 2013, including stints as a special assistant, assistant coach and associate head coach under Krzyzewski, Scheyer has only missed two games. Those were in February 2020 due to appendicitis.

Before becoming Duke’s head coach, Scheyer served as acting head coach for a win over Boston College during the 2020-21 season and a win at Wake Forest during the 2021-22 campaign. Krzyzewski missed both those games due to health reasons.

Scheyer also coached the second half of a home win over Wake Forest during the 2021-22 season when Krzyzewski was too ill to finish the game.

All three of those results are on Krzyzewski’s record.