Jon Scheyer shares how much Jeremy Roach has meant to him ahead of Senior Night

Jon Scheyer will finish off his second regular season as the Duke head coach on Saturday against North Carolina. It hasn’t been easy taking over for legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski, but senior guard Jeremy Roach has been a huge help.

Roach didn’t transfer when Krzyzewski retired, instead committing to stay in Durham and play for Scheyer.

Ahead of the final game for Jeremy Roach at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Scheyer shared what Roach has meant to him.

“It’s hard to explain how much he’s meant, you know,” Jon Scheyer said Saturday morning on ESPN College GameDay. “At some point, when this transition happened, you needed somebody to say ‘yes’ to you. And Jeremy was the main guy, coming off the Final 4 team, he was the one guy returning that played – him and Jaylen Blakes – to say ‘I’m coming back and let’s keep this thing rolling.’”

Jeremy Roach has been a big part of the Blue Devils program for all four seasons he has been there. He started 18 games as a freshman in 2020-21 and averaged 8.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 2021-22, playing both of those seasons under Coach K.

Roach then saw his role increase in 2022-23 under Scheyer, starting 30 games and averaging 13.6 points per contest. He shared Duke MVP honors with Kyle Filipowski last season.

Roach opted to return for his senior year and he is having another excellent season in 2023-24, averaging 14.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.

The College GameDay crew also asked Roach about his emotions ahead of Senior Night.

“The emotions haven’t really hit me yet, but I’m just really worried about focusing on winning this game right here. Focused on my team,” Jeremy Roach said. “Obviously it’s Senior Night, but I don’t want to get too big into that, like too crazy. Keeping the main thing the main thing.”

Duke star Jeremy Roach predicts Blue Devils’ victory over North Carolina on Saturday

The North Carolina Tar Heels got the better of Duke earlier this season, and the Blue Devils are out for revenge on Saturday.

Ahead of the highly-anticipated showdown, Duke star Jeremy Roach joined ESPN College GameDay, where he predicted a Blue Devils victory at Cameron Indoor on Saturday evening, in response to Tar Heels star Armando Bacot saying the ACC runs through him.

“I mean yeah, obviously yeah. You hear stuff like that, and he has the right to say that right now. But we’re not too worried about that,” Roach said, regarding Bacot’s comments. “We’ve got another game to play. They got round one, we’re going to get round two.”