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Jonathan James Scheyer ( , born August 24, 1987) is an American basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach for the Duke Blue Devils of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
As a player, Scheyer led his high school team to an Illinois state basketball championship as a high school , and was the captain of the 2009β10 Duke Blue Devils that won the 2010 NCAA Basketball Championship, as a college All-American. He was a prolific high school scorer, and later an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) leader in numerous statistical categories, including free throw percentage, three-point shots/game, and assists/turnover ratio.
The fourth leading scorer in Illinois high school history, he led his team to a state championship in 2005, and was named Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2006. During the same year, Scheyer was voted as one of the 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament, a group of former players and coaches in honor of the 100th anniversary of the IHSA boys basketball tournament.
He chose to attend Duke for college, where he moved from shooting guard to point guard toward the end of the 2008β09 season, and was the Most Valuable Player of the 2009 ACC men's basketball tournament. In his senior year in 2009β10 as Duke's captain, he led the team to ACC regular season and tournament championships and the NCAA national championship. He led the championship team in points per game, assists, free-throw percentage, and steals per game. Scheyer was a 2010 consensus All-American (Second Team), a unanimous 2009β10 All-ACC First Team selection, and named to the 2010 ACC All-Tournament First Team.
Scheyer attended Glenbrook North High School and led the Spartans to an Illinois High School Association Class AA state basketball championship as a junior, a 3rd-place finish in 2003 as a freshman, and an Elite Eight appearance in the state playoffs three out of four years from 2003 to 2006. Scheyer was known as the "Jewish Jordan", and the Spartans' state championship team is the only high school state championship basketball squad in the nation known to have included an all-Jewish starting line-up.
As a freshman, Scheyer led Glenbrook North in scoring and assists and was First Team All-State as a sophomore in 2004. Scheyer was the only non-senior among those First Team All-State selections and was the only underclassman on any of the first three All-State squads. As a junior, he averaged 26 points, five rebounds, and five assists. His coach David Weber said, "I call him a combination of Larry Bird and Pete Maravich. He's got the flair, the passing abilities. He's got good size. He's a rare player in this day and age." Scheyer rose to national fame in his senior year by scoring 21 points in 75 seconds of play during a one-man comeback effort in the last minute and a half of a high school game against Proviso West High School, in an effort to keep alive his team's 35-game winning streak. It has been called one of the best performances ever on a high school court. As a senior, Scheyer averaged 32 points, six rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
One example of his dogged pursuit of excellence is that while in high school, Scheyer refused to leave the gym one night until he made 50 consecutive free throws. After finally hitting 49 in a row, he missed on his final attempt. His father encouraged him to join him and go home, but β as his coach recalled β "Jon looked at him and said, 'No. I'm starting over.' Then he stayed until he made 50 in a row."
Scheyer is the fourth-leading scorer in Illinois history with 3,034 points, and he is the only player in state history to finish his career ranked in the all-time top 10 in points (4th), rebounds, assists (6th), and steals (7th). He was named Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2006 by an overwhelming margin (receiving 217 votes, to 17 for the second-place finisher), a high school All-American, a two-time Gatorade state Player of the Year, and a three-time All-State selection. He had a reputation as an exceptional 3-point shooter, a good defensive rebounder, and a big-game performer. In naming him to the Illinois First-Team for the decade, ESPN wrote that he was "one of the greatest Illinois high school players of all-time". He was also named to the century-list, the "100 Legends of Illinois Basketball (1908β2007)". Illinois Warriors coach Larry Butler said: "Jon Scheyer is one of the most prolific scorers I've seen in Illinois high school basketball. He was just the ultimate team player. Jon Scheyer would take the shirt off his back to win a game." A Chicago Sun-Times article observed:
Scheyer's offensive game is amazing ... He hits jumpers from all manner of pogo-stick angles. He can hit runners while shooting back across his body. He can drive and finish in acrobatic ways. His offensive repertoire of ways to score is like a magician's bag of tricks. Offensively, he is a modern-day Pete Maravich.Scheyer was a 2006 Inductee into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Scheyer was 7th in the ACC in free throw percentage (.841) for the season, 8th in minutes per game (32.8), tied for 8th in steals per game (1.6) and three-point field goals made per game (2.1), and 18th in points per game (14.9). In the team's 36 games, Scheyer led the Blue Devils in minutes, free throws, free throw percentage, 3-point field goals, 3-point field goal percentage (.395), assists, and assists per game (2.8). He was named the MVP of the 2009 ACC Tournament after scoring 29 points in the championship game. Krzyzewski said after the season: "He's a great competitor. He handles the ball real well. He scoresβhe scored more when he was bringing the ball up than when he didn't bring the ball up. I think the more the ball is in Jon's hands, the better." Reflecting his off-the-court accomplishments, Scheyer was a 2009 ACC Academic Honor Roll selection.
| College Career | |||||||
| 2006β07 | 36.3 | ||||||
| 38.8 | |||||||
| 2008β09 | 38.5 | ||||||
| 38.3 | |||||||
Scheyer made a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left to seal a win for Duke over Georgia Tech for the ACC championship on March 14, 2010.
With 2:37 remaining, Scheyer hit a 3-pointer to put Duke ahead 67β61. The Blue Devils won as he finished with 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. In Duke's Final Four win over West Virginia, he led the team with 23 points while shooting 5 for 9 from 3-point range, with 6 assists, no turnovers, and 2 steals.
Duke won the national championship with a 61β59 victory over Butler, as Scheyer scored 5 of the team's last 10 points. Scheyer had 15 points in the win, and led the team with 5 assists. He became the second player to win an Illinois high school state championship and an NCAA Division I championship, the other having been Quinn Buckner, who won state titles at Thornridge High School in 1971 and 1972, and then was a champion with Indiana in 1976. Sports Illustrated featured Scheyer on the cover of their April 12, 2010, issue.
Scheyer signed with Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports prior to the NBA draft. Scheyer missed the NBA Draft Combine in late May and lost 10 pounds as he battled mononucleosis, which had him out for approximately three weeks and also forced him to miss his graduation. In June, he participated in pre-draft workouts for ten teams. Scheyer went undrafted in the 2010 NBA draft.
For the season, he has also led the nation in assist/turnover ratio. He had 38 double-figure scoring games in the single season (tied for 3rd-most in Duke history with Elton Brand), 110 3-point field goals (the 6th-highest Duke season total; behind Trajan Langdon), 194 free throws (10th in Duke history, behind JJ Redick), and was the 9th player in Duke history to score over 100 points for four seasons. Freshman guard Andre Dawkins said: "Jon's the glue. He takes the big shots."
In his career, he played in 144 consecutive games (most in team history, tied with Chris Duhon), played 4,759 minutes (3rd in both Duke and ACC history, behind Bobby Hurley), had an .861 free throw percentage (3rd in Duke history, and 6th in ACC history), sank 604 free throws (3rd in Duke history, behind Christian Laettner and Redick), 297 3-pointers (4th in school history, ahead of Bobby Hurley, and 10th in ACC history), played 144 games (tied for 4th on Duke's all-time list with Duhon), and had 114 double-figure scoring games (5th all-time at Duke, ahead of Mike Gminski and Grant Hill). In addition, he had 208 steals (8th in school history, behind Grant Hill), and had scored 2,077 points (9th on Duke's all-time list, behind Jason Williams and Gene Banks). Asked to comment on his having passed the career 2,000-points mark, he said: "That's a pretty cool thing. I don't know all the names of who have hit 2,000, but it's a great list to be part of. It's not better than a win tonight, and going to the Sweet 16, but it's still a great honor."
He is the only player in Duke history to record at least 2,000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists, 250 3-pointers, and 200 steals in a career.
Sidelined initially with an eye patch and incapacitating headaches, he ultimately returned to the court wearing protective goggles to protect his eyes. Maccabi Tel Aviv coach David Blatt also approached Scheyer about playing in Europe.
On September 22, 2010, Scheyer accepted a training camp invitation with the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers. Coach Vinny Del Negro observed:
He just knows how to play, and that's a basketball skill. He's got such a nice feel for the game, and works so hard. There's not much maintenance with him. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. This is a good chance to take a long look, and see what he can do here.
On October 9, he was waived. After some additional time off to recover from his injury, on February 17, 2011, Scheyer signed a contract with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Houston Rockets D-League team, which had 16 games left in their season. He had turned down several offers from overseas, and offers from other D-League teams.
Scheyer said his eye had healed from the traumatic injury that he suffered in the NBA Summer League. On March 14, he had a D-League career-high 21 points and 7 assists against Sioux Falls Skyforce, the next night he broke those personal records with 24 points and 8 assists, and four nights later he scored a new career-high 27 points which included five three-pointers. In 24 regular and post-season games, he averaged 13.1 points, 4.0 assists, and 4.0 rebounds as the team finished the season as runner-up in the championship.
The team was limited to no more than four players who are non-Israeli, but because Scheyer has a Jewish father he had the ability to obtain Israeli citizenship relatively quickly, and did so in September 2011. As an Israeli citizen, Scheyer did not count towards that limit. "I am really excited to take the next step in my basketball career and go play for Maccabi Tel Aviv," said Scheyer. "I am looking forward to the opportunity to play for a team with such great tradition."
After his summer league stint in 2012, Scheyer signed for Gran Canaria 2014 in the Liga ACB.
On June 2, 2021, it was announced that Scheyer would become Duke's next head basketball coach after Mike Krzyzewski's retirement following the end of the 2021β22 season. After Krzyzewski retired, he officially became head coach in April 2022. In his first season, he drew the top recruiting class according to 247Sports and Sports Illustrated, and won the ACC tournament before bowing out in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
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