Uncharted role: Mike Schrage ready to assist

DURHAM – So what is it that Mike Schrage, hired to a new position as special assistant to the head coach, will do for Duke’s men’s basketball team in Jon Scheyer’s first season?

Well, that much is still being worked out.

“I think it’s still being defined,” Schrage said when asked what his day-to-day responsibilities entail. “I’m just going to continue to learn what I can and can’t do, right?”

The crux of it, though, is to be available for anything and everything that Duke’s staff – not just Scheyer, but assistants Chris Carrawell, Amile Jefferson and Jai Lucas – could need on a day-to-day basis.

“It’s my love for Duke, my belief in Jon Scheyer, and just this window of opportunity to help in any way I can making this step with these guys,” Schrage said.

Duke is not unfamiliar to Schrage – in fact, his return to Durham is a homecoming of sorts. The well-traveled, well-versed Schrage worked at Duke for nine years, from 1999-2008 – first as the academic and recruiting coordinator, and then as the director of basketball operations.

The bulk of the years between Duke stints were spent at Stanford, where Schrage was an assistant for eight seasons under Johnny Dawkins. He left Stanford and worked one season at Butler and two at Ohio State, all under Chris Holtmann, before taking his first head coaching job at Elon.

Schrage left Elon after three seasons as head coach – his first head coaching role after a career spent climbing the ranks – to join Scheyer’s first staff.

Being a part of Scheyer’s maiden voyage appealed to Schrage on a number of levels – as it appealed to Scheyer in having someone on his staff he first met when he arrived at Duke in 2006.

“He has the amazing institutional knowledge of Duke,” Scheyer said. “He knows me and there’s a trust level that me and him have had that goes back … 16 years. And then you add in the fact that he’s a great coach.”

One part of the job Schrage knows is that he won’t be on the recruiting trail, as he isn’t one of the three countable assistants who can recruit on the road. He’s looking forward to avoiding that, with two teenagers at home.

“I don’t mind missing recruiting on the road anymore,” he said. “Some guys in our profession need that, I didn’t need that. I’ve got a 17-year-old son whose senior year of high school is coming up, I’ve got a 14-year-old daughter, I don’t need that in my life.”

The nudge for Schrage to leave Elon, aside from his affinity for the program and for Scheyer, came from Schrage’s son, Andrew. The father-son duo went to Greenville, S.C., for Duke’s first two games in the NCAA tournament and it was Andrew who pushed his father, who’d had initial talks with Scheyer about the role, toward returning to Duke.

“I saw so many of the people that are still here that I know and love. I saw March Madness,” Schrage said. “And my son was like, ‘Dad, you’re not going to do this? Are you kidding me?’

“I was close to 100%, he made me 100%.”

Andrew will be a senior in high school next year, which is why Mike Schrage will be commuting to Duke from Burlington before an eventual move to the Triangle area.

“Whatever Jon Scheyer and this staff needs, I’m going to do,” Schrage said.