Most folks in the college basketball world would agree Duke’s Jon Scheyer, at 37 years old, is the head coach most likely to win a game of one-on-one against an active player.
But that doesn’t make his recent claim – that he beat Boston Celtics star and former Blue Devil Jayson Tatum one-on-one last summer – any less shocking.
Scheyer made the claim during ACC media day while speaking with reporters at The Field of 68.
“Next time you’re trading messages with Jayson Tatum, ask him who won the last game of 1-on-1 we played,” Scheyer said. “I played Jayson 1-on-1 last summer and beat him.”
Scheyer was a 5-star recruit and McDonald’s All-American out of high school before spending four seasons playing for Coach K at Duke, where he was a second-team All-American and All-ACC member while leading the Blue Devils to a national title in 2010.
The head coach played professionally overseas for a few years before returning to Durham as a Duke assistant in 2014. He was in that role in 2016-17 during Tatum’s one and only season with the Blue Devils.
https://twitter.com/TheFieldOf68/status/1844115530963140957
Few would be surprised if a then 29-year-old Scheyer beat Tatum one-on-one while he was a teenager, but if Scheyer truly took down the NBA superstar last summer – sandwiched between two of Tatum’s three All-NBA First Team appearances – well, perhaps Scheyer should have been given a longer look by NBA scouts.
Tatum has yet to respond to the claim.