Two years ago, after Pittsburgh beat Duke on a last-second 3-pointer in Madison Square Garden, The Big Lead got on his soapbox and singled out Jon Scheyer, calling him “unquestionably, an awful college basketball player…. Offensively, after last night’s dreadful 1-for-10 shooting performance, one cannot begin to imagine the thought process that Scheyer uses when he is in possession of the basketball.” A patently absurd statement in 2007, it rings even flatter almost exactly two years later, when the New York City media left the Garden singing Scheyer’s praises in their stories about Duke’s throttling of Gonzaga.
Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn focused his attention on Scheyer — who scored 20 points and dished out eight assists to just two turnovers — calling the guard not just an All-American candidate, but the new frontrunner for the ACC Player of the Year.
Sounds crazy, at first. Jon Scheyer, ACC Player of the Year? Well, Scheyer is third in the league in scoring, buoyed by a 36-point outburst against Gardner-Webb Tuesday. Plus, there is no dominant player as in years past, and if Duke does enough to win the conference, it seems likely that Scheyer, Kyle Singler or Nolan Smith would nab the honors. Take it away, Mr. Winn:
It feels strange saying those things about the Duke senior who had, up until recently, always been thought of as a complementary player. I imagine a large number of non-Duke fans will begin drafting angry e-mails immediately after seeing “Scheyer” and “ACC Player of the Year” in the same sentence, and not even read the rest of this article. But in this case the numbers back up the argument.
Scheyer played his standard, tidy game against the Zags, scoring 20 points while dishing out eight assists against just two turnovers — and his season assist-to-turnover ratio actually went down. He entered the game with a 6.4-to-1 ratio, third-best in the nation (according to statsheet.com) and best amongst ACC players. His season splits are now 59 assists against 10 turnovers, decent numbers for someone who also leads the Blue Devils in scoring at 18.2 points per game, didn’t start playing point guard until the latter half of his junior season, and still isn’t called a point guard by his coach. “Jon’s just a really smart, good player,” said Mike Krzyzewski. “He doesn’t have a position.”
Bill Eichenberger, in The Sporting News, latched onto a similar thread. Singler was supposed to be this team’s All-American, and Scheyer the team’s rock, even though he was the ACC Tournament MVP last year. Singler was the preseason ACC Player of the Year, the preseason All-American, the junior fated to emerge as a dominant force on the perimeter. Instead — at least, so far — Scheyer has been both the unsung hero and the flashy star of the season, and his performance in the Garden capped a wonderful opening to the season, Eichenberger writes:
Maybe Jon Scheyer is overlooked because he looks so much like the prototypical Duke basketball player that he has difficulty establishing an identity of his own.
Or maybe it’s because he doesn’t really have a clearly defined position. Coach Mike Krzyzewski says he’s more player than point guard or shooting guard.
But for whatever the reason, ask even an avid college basketball fan to name the current Blue Devil most likely to be an All-American, and the common answer will be junior forward Kyle Singler.
If Scheyer has many more performances like his last three, including a 20-point, eight-assist, five-rebound effort in Saturday’s surprisingly easy 76-41 victory over No. 15 Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden, that is likely to change.
In The New York Times, Kevin Armstrong also wrote about Scheyer and Smith, the bulk of Duke’s backcourt, playing in front of some of the most memorable Duke guards in recent memory: Jay Williams, Chris Duhon, Greg Paulus. “I’m none of those guys,” Scheyer told Armstrong, “but Nolan and I have a special chemistry.” Together, they combined for 44 points:
A year ago this week, Smith usurped Paulus in the starting lineup. Promoted to jolt the offense with his ability to create shots and hawk opponents’ ballhandlers, he jumped out to a quick start, but then struggled with consistency. Duke’s coaching staff hopes he can build on game experience. “This was the best game that he’s played since coming to Duke,” the assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski said.
With the game in hand, Krzyzewski pulled his starting guards just before the four-minute mark. They sat together on the bench, much like Paulus and Williams a few feet away. In the locker room afterward, Paulus walked in and told Smith: “I’m proud of you. Now go win some more.”
Closer to home, Ken Tysiac, up in New York for The (Raleigh) News & Observer, led with another interaction between Paulus and Smith, who, for a time last year, stole Paulus’s starting spot. Minutes after one of Smith’s best games in a Duke uniform — but before Smith tweeted away an Amtrak ride back to his beloved DMV — Paulus approached his protege in the locker room and offered him some advice in class:
Before reporters could get to Nolan Smith in the Duke locker room, former teammate Greg Paulus had grabbed him.
Smith had just scored 24 points to lead seventh-ranked Duke to an eye-opening, 76-41 thumping of No. 15 Gonzaga on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Jon Scheyer added 20 points, combining with Smith for a starting backcourt scoring total that surpassed the output of the entire Gonzaga team.
Paulus told Smith he was proud of him, then let the reporters surround him.
“Put a shirt on when you do TV,” Paulus said, smiling. “I thought I taught you something.”
The way Scheyer and Smith played Saturday, they must have learned plenty from their brethren in the crowd.
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He’s had a good couple games, but he’s the third best player on the team. Maybe fourth behind Dawkins.
With Smith and Singler above him? Singler I may give you though he certainly has not played well enough this year. I think Singler has more talent, but has underperformed so far.
But Smith? No way. The stats don’t back it up and his play doesn’t back it up. Scheyer has had more than “a good couple games.” He’s been fantastic this year. The competition hasn’t been stellar, but the rest of the team has faced the same players as Scheyer has faced and Scheyer leads the team in points, assists, and FT%. He’s shooting 46% from the field and has the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country.
You can’t just write that off as “a good couple games”
I’m not saying he’s bad, I’m just saying dont get too high or low on him because of a few games. The Mcintyre guy at thebiglead said he was terrible after a few bad games and that was ridiculous. Saying he’s great after a 36-8-9 against a crappy team is also a little crazy. Scheyer played awfully against Coastal Carolina if you really want a specific example (after which of course coach K sung his praises for “leading the team” or whatever). But that’s not really the point.
Smith makes more things happen. It’s easy to have a high assist-turnover when you play with great players and never take any risks. Nolan’s defense is also much better than Scheyer’s, and defense matters a lot. Scheyer was getting destroyed by UConn’s guards so he had to be taken out early in the connecticut game.
In the big games we know who they’re going to when the games on the line– Singler. And Nolan’s probably bringing the ball up when ACC play comes around because he can handle the backcourt pressure, and actually provide some of his own on the other end.
Again, Scheyer is really good, and Mcintyre is dumb, but let’s not get carried away on the other end. He’s not an actual ACC player of the year contender.
I agree he won’t be an actual ACC POY candidate in three months from now, but right his now stats justify him to be up there.
Scheyer is still going to be the point guard come ACC play. Smith has not proved that he can handle ACC pressure and has committed more turnovers in fewer games than Scheyer has against worse competition. He has 26 assists and 14 turnovers so far this season. Against bad competition, that isn’t very good. In the 3 big games of the season (Arizona St., UCONN, Wisconsin), he has four assists and eight turnovers. Scheyer has 15 assists and 5 turnovers in those three games. Smith has never proven he can handle ACC pressure. He had more turnovers than assists in his limited time at point guard last year and hasn’t proven otherwise this year.
Defensively, Smith isn’t all he’s made out to be either. In the Wisconsin game who was his assignment? Trevon Hughes who was 9-of-16 from the field and scored 26 points. Meanwhile Scheyer had the toughest assignment in the Gardner-Webb game with Grayson Flitnner who scored 32 against UNC. He had 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting with Scheyer defending him and his two three-pointers came with Scheyer off the court.
I’m not sure why you’re using the UCONN game as an example. Scheyer played 37 minutes, uconn scored just 59 points, and Duke won while shooting just 29.6% from the field. That’s an example of Scheyer’s defense being bad? Smith was beaten off the dribble countless times in that game. Dyson and Walker are quicker than him and quicker than Scheyer. However, Scheyer backed off a tiny bit and that allowed him to stay in front. Smith didn’t and got beaten for it. Either way, both played very good defense in that game. That was one of Duke’s best defensive performances in a long time.
I agree we’ll go with Singler in ACC play, but Scheyer will be the No. 2 and will be the point guard. Smith has not proven otherwise at any point in his time at Duke and Scheyer is playing the best basketball of his life.