Jon Scheyer describes his approach to the transfer portal

Jon Scheyer took over at Duke right when the transfer portal really further emerged in college basketball. That has forced him and the Blue Devils to adjust and best determine how they want to go about building their roster each season.

Scheyer addressed his portal approach in an interview with Jay Bilas on ‘The Brotherhood Podcast’. With the ever-changing space in college athletics, he admitted that it’s not the first time that he has had to alter how they were going about fielding a team.

“I mean, look, I think, if you go back to three years ago when I found out I was going to be the next head coach? There’s a strategy put into place,” said Scheyer. “The world has changed more than you can imagine the last three years.”

“I’ve been a part now on staff for almost 15 years. There has probably been three or four iterations of how we’ve had to pivot or continue to adapt to how we recruit, how we put together a team. We’re going through one right now,” Scheyer said.

As Scheyer pointed out, though, a lot of it is going to have to do with their circumstances each offseason. For example, they only took one transfer and lose none around this time last year.

“It’s probably the first time in a while at least where we had more players come back than we were expecting this past season,” reflected Scheyer. “The fact that nobody transferred was a great thing. I think it’s a reflection on Duke, a reflection on our program, our staff, and that guys have enjoyed it and they want to come back for more.”

However, this offseason was the opposite. Duke started the portal process right after their loss in the NCAA Tournament. Those discussions led to seven players transferring out and four players transferring to Durham.

“The way of building a team and getting older? It’s tougher to do that if you don’t have any transfers. For us, like, we recruited very well but having experience is still a valuable thing. So, this year, after the season, we lose on March 31st. Starting April 1st, really the next day? Like, we’re starting with conversations with all of our guys,” Scheyer explained. “We had incredibly honest, heartfelt conversations with each one of them, whether they were going pro, coming back, leaving – here’s where you are, here’s where we see you, how can I help you, where are you at?”

“The sooner we got answers, the better decisions we could make from that. I have nothing but great things to say about all of these guys – whatever direction they’re going. I was fortunate to coach really good guys. But our program needed to go to another level this year with the competitiveness and also the fit of the guys that we had,” continued Scheyer. “With that didn’t come a promise for you, if it was you as a player, where I’d promise you that you were going to start, promise you that you were going to get a certain amount of shots or minutes. If somebody wasn’t willing to do that? Then I’ll help you however I can. If you are? Then great. Let’s go.”

Duke’s incoming team is set to have six freshmen as part of the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation. Those four transfers will them join them along with a trio of returners.

That’s around the mix that Scheyer is shooting for – give or take one or two more or less from each grouping.

“For our team, it has to be a balance of, going forward, probably not a class of six freshmen. More so four, three, or maybe the max will be five. Ideally, you have three to five players returning. Although some years it may be two, some years it could be six. Then one or two transfers. That’s the way, at least right now with the way it’s set up in college, being at Duke, that is the most successful way for us and that we’re going to go forward with,” said Scheyer. “There’s a balance to it.”

Even as a blue blood, Duke is having to reshape themselves to best fit this new era. Scheyer thinks they’ve done exactly that this offseason with how this next roster of Blue Devils projects for them next season.

“We knew we had to have some change happen to take that next step for where we want to go. We’ve executed that, guys have made their decisions,” said Scheyer. “I’m really proud and happy with where we’ve landed.”