It was March 5, 2022. Coach K had just coached his final game at Duke, a night that ended in heartbreak with a loss to archrival North Carolina. Emotions were raw, uncertainty hung in the air, and Duke was suddenly staring at life without the winningest coach in program history. Instead of looking outside the program, the university made a bold call by promoting associate head coach Jon Scheyer. Looking back now, it’s fair to say they got that decision absolutely right.

It took Jon Scheyer just 11 games into his fourth season to reach 100 career wins, hitting the milestone with a victory over the gritty Lipscomb Bisons. In the process, he became the fastest head coach in ACC history to reach the century mark. Scheyer needed only 122 games to get there, breaking Duke’s Vic Bubas’ previous conference record of 128 games.

Bubas’ record had stood for more than 60 years before Scheyer finally surpassed it. While he still has a long way to go before even thinking about challenging Coach K’s all-time wins record of 1,202, the most ever by a coach, Scheyer has already taken an important first step in that direction.

Jon Scheyer is 100–22 since succeeding Coach K, good for an 81.9% winning percentage. He has recorded at least 27 wins in each of his first three seasons, won the ACC Tournament twice, and reached the Final Four last season. Add in three No. 1-ranked recruiting classes already secured during his tenure, and Scheyer’s start at Duke has been nothing short of remarkable.

As a member of the program’s 2,000-point club, Scheyer has won the ACC regular season championship as a player in 2010, as an assistant in 2022, and for the first time as head coach last season, and it’s only fitting that he got to become the one to break the longstanding record of Vic Bubas.

Coach K needed six seasons to reach 100 wins at Duke, and he did it while building the program into a blue blood from the ground up. Scheyer, by contrast, inherited a powerhouse, but that context doesn’t diminish what he has accomplished. Replacing “the man” of a program often brings uncertainty and disruption, yet Scheyer has done the opposite, keeping Duke’s standard intact and the program’s dominance firmly in place.

That said, his 100th win didn’t come easy, as the Blue Devils had to battle for every bit of it.

Jon Scheyer’s 100th win a struggle

In just the first 13 minutes of Tuesday night’s game against Lipscomb at Cameron Indoor Stadium, No. 3 Duke coughed up 13 turnovers, already more than the undefeated Blue Devils had committed in any full game this season. That’s not all! Duke gave up 45 points in the opening 20 minutes, the most the Blue Devils have allowed in a half this season and the highest total conceded at home in any half under the fourth-year head coach.

But Jon Scheyer’s group responded after the break. Duke turned up the intensity and outscored Lipscomb 49–28 in the second half, fueled by a pair of timely threes from Evans and 14 second-half points from Cameron Boozer. Boozer took over late, finishing with 26 points, 13 rebounds, and three assists, though it wasn’t his cleanest night, as he accounted for six of the Blue Devils’ season-high 22 turnovers.

The Blue Devils are ranked No. 3 in the country after a perfect 11–0 start to the season. Jon Scheyer’s group already owns statement wins over Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, and Michigan State, and somehow looks even more dangerous than last season, when they had the likes of Cooper Flagg and Kon Kneuppel.

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With Cam Boozer now leading the charge, the bigger question is whether Scheyer can guide Duke back to the top of college basketball. For now, all that’s left to do is sit back and watch it unfold.