Duke's Jon Scheyer talked to SI's Jason Jordan about recruiting during the pandemic and how good Coach K has gotten at Zoom
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00:00 In the last decade Duke assess associate head coach John Shire has led his team to a national
00:08 title as a player.
00:10 He has been a part of a team that won a title in 2015 and now he had to tell his team this
00:15 year that they couldn't even buy for a national title.
00:19 So all of that in the course of 10 years and he's here with us this morning right now.
00:25 Coach Shire, what's going on, man?
00:26 Jason, I appreciate you having me on.
00:29 Absolutely.
00:30 I'd imagine you're in a very creative headspace right now because especially from a recruiting
00:38 perspective, I'd imagine you all have had to be very creative in the way you approach
00:43 recruiting now.
00:44 Is that, would you say that that's accurate?
00:47 It's very accurate and you know it's such unusual times.
00:51 This is really that time of year we would have already seen some of our recruits multiple
00:57 times in person and clearly that hasn't happened for us or for anybody else.
01:01 And so it's led to Zoom calls with recruits, which I give Coach K a lot of credit.
01:08 He's gotten really good at and same thing with our staff and figuring out ways where
01:12 we can connect without seeing them in person is just an unusual thing to figure out.
01:18 But we're lucky to have a creative team.
01:22 It's a lot of time where we're not on the road and so you really get a chance to focus
01:26 in on this and it's really been a great challenge to be honest with you.
01:31 Yeah, obviously the NCAA has extended the period to June 30th now, so we're going to
01:37 be in this space for a while, obviously.
01:40 I talked to a lot of elite players that say that they find themselves because they have
01:44 so much free time, they find themselves thinking and they think about a lot of recruitment,
01:48 right?
01:49 So do you guys, does that change your approach at all?
01:51 Like in terms of maybe cornering the market, like are you more aggressive with your approach,
01:57 maybe trying to get guys to commit earlier than you would?
02:00 You know, for us, we always go by what the recruit is thinking, right?
02:04 And so for somebody, I think it's important to know what their timeline is.
02:09 We'll adjust to that.
02:11 And I think the coronavirus, you know, COVID-19 doesn't really impact in terms of us trying
02:17 to get.
02:18 So if someone want to commit tomorrow, that's great.
02:23 But you know, I think we'll see our fair share.
02:25 I think some guys may do something early and some guys may wait because of what's going
02:29 on.
02:30 We'll respect either way.
02:31 And frankly, it's up to them completely.
02:33 Right.
02:34 And we're starting to see a lot of, well, not a lot, but schools are starting to trickle
02:38 into kind of just their academic calendars, right?
02:41 And so that what people are thinking is that will affect the athletic calendars.
02:45 There's some noise being kicked around that maybe college basketball starts a little late,
02:50 right?
02:51 Is that a scenario you guys have heard?
02:53 And is that something you are at least putting on the table to plan for?
02:57 You know, we haven't heard anything specifically.
02:59 I think the thing that we've learned from, you know, going through, you know, the ACC
03:05 tournament and the NCAA tournament, just seeing what's happened with our country, you need
03:09 to be very flexible.
03:11 I think to say, you know, anything set in stone in this, you know, right now and whatever
03:16 date it is, I'm getting all my days mixed up right now, Jay.
03:19 But I think that's for us.
03:20 We've talked about as a staff, being able to adapt to whatever the calendar is, the
03:24 season, school starts earlier, later, season starts earlier, later, all those things we
03:29 need to be prepared for.
03:33 And the, and you know, whether school starts or the season starts on time or not, what
03:38 will probably not happen is full capacity at stadiums now, Cameron and our stadium,
03:43 the best in show, right?
03:44 A lot of you guys is lords, a lot of your advantages, having the students on top, everybody
03:50 hounded them the whole time.
03:51 What does a, let's just say 50% capacity crowd at Cameron, what's that?
03:56 What would that even feel like?
03:59 It's, you know what, you bring up such a good point.
04:03 It's hard to envision that because, you know, I've probably been a part of, you know, I
04:09 was pretty good at math at one time, but, you know, a couple hundred games in Cameron
04:14 and I mean, it's, there's, everyone has been full.
04:18 And so to imagine where it's 50%, I think there's still something about like, look,
04:24 even when you're in Cameron and it's empty, you know, sometimes you go in there late at
04:27 night, you're the first one in the gym for practice or whatever may be.
04:31 It has just an aura to it and a feel and something special about it.
04:36 And so I think that will still be there no matter what, but of course, just like anything,
04:41 I mean, it's the people that made that place special.
04:43 And so we'll have to adjust, you know, we've always talked about no excuses.
04:47 So, you know, both teams are in the same situation, I guess, you know, moving forward when that
04:53 time comes.
04:54 Yes, indeed.
04:55 Definitely a wait and see for everybody.
04:57 Coach Shire, thanks for joining us this morning.
04:59 Thank you.
05:00 Thank you again for having me.
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