Jon Scheyer on Kyle Filipowski: 'We need him to be better'

Duke head coach Jon Scheyer believes Kyle Filipowski has more to give. In the Blue Devils’ 71-53 win over Notre Dame on Wednesday, the standout forward tallied eight points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes. After the game, Scheyer issued a public challenge to Filipowski.

“We need him to be better,” Scheyer said. “He’s hard on himself, and he wants to be better. Look, he still has five offensive rebounds. He’s two points away, and a rebound away from having a double-double. But the standard that I have for him, and he has for himself, he knows he can be better.”

In 22 games this season, Filipowski has averaged 17.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game while shooting 49.6% from the field and 35.1% from behind the arc. Filipowski has also been a menace on defense, averaging 1.8 blocks per game.

Of course, when a player constantly challenges shot, he’s also consistently at risk of foul trouble. Filipowski fell victim to this risk on Wednesday. Filipowski only played 21 minutes after battling the referees all night.

Scheyer knows his team needs Filipowski on the floor as much as possible.

“I know you say tough matchup, but he’s a tough matchup, no matter what. We’ve got to get him going,” Scheyer said. “We have to help him, I have to help him. We have to keep him out of foul trouble. That’s clearly a thing that every team tries to do, is go at him to try to get fouls.

“We have to learn and adjust from that. We won the game by 19 points when he was in there, but he’s only in there for half the game. And so that’s something we have to figure out.”

Kyle Filipowski chips Armando Bacot’s teeth

Despite finishing with four fouls in Duke’s loss against North Carolina, Filipowski was still able to put on a show. The 7-foot sophomore finished the game with 22 points and five boards on 9-17 shooting. Filipowski collected more than a few buckets.

In the loss, Filipowski chipped five of North Carolina center Armando Bacot’s teeth. Following the game, Bacot discussed the injury.

“Man, I chipped five teeth, so I’m going through it right now,” Bacot said. “As soon as we get off this, I gotta go to the doctor. [Kyle] Filipowski just went through my face. It was a good move, honestly. I can’t be mad because I was in his cylinder. I told him. Honestly, I might have actually fouled him, but yeah, it felt bad.”