The Big Lead

Jon Scheyer Ushers In Era of High Profile College Basketball Coaches Who Grew Up Online

By Stephen Douglas

Jon Scheyer back when he was making YouTube videos.
Jon Scheyer back when he was making YouTube videos. / Ned Dishman/Getty Images
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Jon Scheyer is probably going to be named the new head coach of the Duke Blue Devils. He's been an assistant at his alma mater since 2014. He's replacing Mike Krzyzewski, who had been coach at Duke since seven years before Scheyer was born.

To further drive home just how young Scheyer is (he turns 34 years-old in August), he will likely become one of the first major coaching hires who grew up online. This is our new reality. Like Stephen Curry at Davidson, Jon Scheyer was making funny YouTube videos while he was working towards a National Championship at Duke.

Here's Scheyer in a comedy video that would have been filmed during the spring of his freshman season. it alludes to the fact that he once scored 24 points in 75 seconds in a high school game. An event which also exists in an extremely 2009 YouTube video. Anyway, I can't quite prepare you for the events of this two minute DUI (Duke University Improv) video of Blue Devils freshman Scheyer.

During his sophomore season, while he was averaging 11 points a game off the bench for the team that beat 15-seed Belmont by one point, he made a video for the official Blue Planet channel. Scheyer met up with freshman Kyle Singler to play pool (poorly) and tell the camera crew that they watch The Office, 24, and Prison Break.

After winning a title as a senior, Scheyer played summer league for the Miami Heat. Playing the same position as Dwyane Wade and wearing the same number as Mike Miller, he did not make the first team of the Big Three era in Miami and ended up playing overseas.

When Scheyer returned to Duke for the K Academy in 2012, he wasn't even the head coach on one of the camp teams. Apparnetly, he was a serious gamer who won a video game tournament at the previous year's camp.

Obviously, he found his passion. Now nearly a decade later he's poised to run the whole program. As serious and grown up as he looks on the sideline at Duke, he's not far removed from the kid who stole a bike and caught a fake baby and put it on the Internet.

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