Jon Scheyer’s commitment to Duke on display

DURHAM – The Cameron Crazies had already called over all seven of the high school players either committed to Duke or being prioritized by Duke in recruiting — plus Cooper Flagg’s twin brother, Ace Flagg.

There was one more not-so-obvious target left for the “sit with us!” chant, and Jon Scheyer was happy to oblige.

He’s happy entering his second season at Duke, a fact that was reaffirmed with a contract extension reported and confirmed a few hours before Countdown to Craziness on Friday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“I’m committed to Duke. To know they’re committed to me as well, and our staff and the job we’ve done is great,” Scheyer said. “I’m thankful to President (Vincent) Price, I’m thankful to (athletics director) Nina (King).”

Scheyer’s new deal reportedly runs through the 2028-29 season, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

“Look, tonight’s about the team. And I was a little bit emotional just watching them out there because … we have 12 guys on scholarship, all 12 of them were being recruited by other places, they could have gone pro,” Scheyer said. “And I told the crowd, they’re committed to Duke. And hopefully everybody knows I’m committed to Duke.”

That word and its branches — commit — was an important one for this night. All three of Duke’s commits in the Class of 2024, Isaiah Evans, Darren Harris and Kon Knueppel, and three remaining targets in the class, Cooper Flagg as the No. 1 player, V.J. Edgecombe and Patrick Ngongba II, plus Class of 2025 target Nate Ament, were in the building.

As mentioned, all of them were summoned and obliged to stand in Duke’s student section during the scrimmage.

And then Scheyer joined for the last few minutes of the Blue-White scrimmage.

“I wasn’t expecting that. I literally was not even listening,” Scheyer said. “I’ll tell you what, it’s hot over there. It’s not an easy job that they have. But it was fun. That’s the only time I would go over there. But they’re the best.”

Here are other takeaways from Duke’s Countdown to Craziness:

Kyle Filipowski has recovered from the double hip surgery he underwent in the spring. He moved comfortably throughout the Blue-White scrimmage, scoring five points to go along with three rebounds and three assists*.

The last highlight of the night belonged to him, when he threw down a vicious dunk and high-stepped his way back down the court with both hands over his face and mouth.

Not bad for a guy who missed two weeks with a concussion and only returned earlier this week.

“I got back earlier this week,” Filipowski told Devils Illustrated.

He took a rough hit in practice from Ryan Young.

“Ryan’s a menace,” Filipowski said, adding that Young should be asked about the play. “Be like, ‘Why do you keep accidentally hitting people?’”

To be clear: Filipowski confirmed that it was an accident.

* This was one of the more eye-opening stats of the night, as Filipowski had one game last season with more than three assists (five against Miami in the ACC tournament). His first two assists were low-post feeds to Christian Reeves.

Scheyer said he was looking for an even split of the teams. The score was not even.

The white team beat the blue team 33-18, as the only player in double-figure scoring was Jeremy Roach (12 points). Duke’s senior guard hit 3-pointers from opposite corners in the first eight minutes, as his team jumped out to a 23-7 lead.

Roach and Tyrese Proctor (five points, three assists) were paired together, matched up against the freshman guard duo of Caleb Foster and Jared McCain.

“We just wanted to split up the teams as evenly as possible,” Scheyer said. “White got them tonight, blue could get them the next night.”

There was something to be said for having experience in this event. Foster, McCain and freshman Sean Stewart were whistled for eight of the 11 fouls called, with Foster picking up two charges.

“I do think you saw the maturity from Tyrese and Jeremy, the chemistry that they have,” Scheyer said. “They’ve played in front of the lights many times before. Caleb and Jared, man, they’ve got such a bright future. They’re tough guards … and now it’s time to play together against somebody else.”

The white team had 10 assists, three by Proctor and Filipowski, and one turnover; the blue team had two assists and five turnovers.

The 7-1 sophomore center seems comfortable at Countdown to Craziness.

Reeves had eight points and scrimmage-highs of seven rebounds and three blocks. This comes a year after he had 11 points without missing a shot, along with five rebounds and three blocks in this event.

Instead of last season when we were asking if he’d shown enough to no longer be a redshirt option, this season’s performance comes with questions of whether he can play meaningful minutes at the 5-position. Reeves played in 13 games last season, almost exclusively in blowouts.

He’s worked to become a different player, though.

“It might be a surprise to people around but it’s not a surprise to the guys in the locker room,” Young said. “He was working hard all of last year, and then working hard this preseason getting after it.

“He’s going to be a huge part of what we do on the court and I’m excited to see him thrive the way he did today.”