Aiming to avoid a road letdown in McCamish Pavilion for the second year in a row, third-year Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer and his No. 5-ranked Blue Devils (9-2, 1-0 ACC) are heading to Atlanta to face Damon Stoudamire’s second batch of Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (5-6, 0-1 ACC) at noon ET Saturday (ACC Network).
Win or lose, it’ll be Scheyer’s 400th game between his time as a Duke basketball assistant under Mike Krzyzewski and in his current role at the helm. The program is 308-91 (77.2 percent) through its first 399 contests with the Blue Devil treasure on the staff.
Combining that clip with Jon Scheyer’s 115-29 record (79.9 percent) as a 2006-10 Duke basketball guard, the Blue Devils are 423-120 (77.9 percent) when he is on either the bench or court in any capacity. Of course, the victories include the program’s last two of five national championships, as Scheyer was the starting point guard in 2009-10 and a second-year assistant in 2014-15.
Meanwhile, as of Saturday, media, fans, and Scheyer alike must cease referring to freshman guard/forward and projected 2025 No. 1 overall draft pick Cooper Flagg as a beyond-his-years 17-year-old. The 6-foot-9, 205-pound Maine native will still be more advanced than his peers, but he’ll be set to shine the rest of the way for the 2024-25 Blue Devils as an 18-year-old.
Flagg wraps up his time as a 17-year-old being the only one in NCAA history to record multiple 20-point double-doubles. And he recorded three of them, including his 22 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals, two blocks, and zero turnovers in Duke’s signature 84-78 defeat of the visiting No. 2 Auburn Tigers back on Dec. 4.
Entering his 18th birthday, Flagg leads Duke with his averages of 16.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.4 blocks. Plus, he sits second on the team with his 1.6 steals per game.
After battling the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the Duke Blue Devils, riding a season-best five-game winning streak, will enjoy the longest break on their schedule before hosting the Virginia Tech Hokies (5-6, 0-1 ACC) on Dec. 31 at 4:30 p.m. ET (ACC Network).
