The 86th game of Jon Scheyer’s tenure as Duke’s coach was unlike any of the previous 85.

Quite simply, he wasn’t there. The third-year coach did not travel with the Blue Devils to SMU for Saturday’s game.

But he felt like he was there — just in another dimension.

“I told our team, none of them understood what I was saying, but I felt like I was in ‘Interstellar,’” Scheyer said on Monday’s ACC teleconference via Zoom, referencing the 2014 movie starring Matthew McConaughey.

It’s a movie — spoiler alert, if such a thing is needed for an 11-year-old flick — that has to do with travel through time and space. There’s a twist involving McConaughey’s character being trapped in an alternate dimension, able to watch his family but unable to communicate directly with them.

So, you get the gist for a basketball coach watching his team from something like 1,200 miles away.

“He’s looking back at his family and they’re all living, they’re all doing their thing and you weren’t there,” Scheyer said. “It was just a bizarre, bizarre experience.”

In the same breath that Scheyer said he was feeling “horrible,” he also said confidence to make the decision to stay home stemmed from his feelings on his coaching staff. Associate coach Chris Carrawell filled in as acting head coach for the first time in his seven years of being on Duke’s bench.

“I felt we were prepared, the game plan was in,” Scheyer said. “To see them execute, to see the togetherness, to see the pride they played with, to see the job that Chris did, Jai (Lucas), Emanuel (Dildy).

“Even though those guys haven’t been head coaches yet, I have head coaches on my staff. … And so, I was really proud, and I felt a lot better after the game. A lot better.”

Scheyer is expected back on the sidelines for Duke’s game against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

While Scheyer was the one who stayed home from the trip to Dallas, he wasn’t alone in under-the-weather status.

“Tyrese (Proctor), he was sick as could be on Saturday, too. I think he got me sick,” Scheyer said, quickly clarifying that was a joke. “He was not feeling well and he really just gutted it out.”

It’d be hard to tell Proctor was sick, based on his performance; he had 14 points, made 4 of 7 3-pointers, grabbed six rebounds, had three assists and committed one turnover in 32 minutes.