STATE FARM CHAMPIONS CLASSIC: KANSAS VS DUKE

November 10, 2026

Jon Scheyer

Duke Blue Devils

Press Conference

Michigan State 79, Duke 73

JON SCHEYER: Look, congrats to Michigan State. They 100 percent deserved to win. I thought they out-competed us. They played more together. Fears controlled the whole game.

I thought the difference, their role players were incredible. Ward, what he did in the first half changed the game. Those guys -- Carr, just they were really solid.

For me, it was a little bit of an out-of-body experience. Our team, I thought we weren't completely connected. Just the bottom line, we weren't connected. We're going to fix it. I can promise you that much. Our fans deserve better. That was not a good performance tonight.

You've got to give a lot of credit to Michigan State, though. They were ready to play. Fears controlled the whole game. Again, for us, it's no excuses on our end. We'll get back to work. We'll address this very quickly. Our schedule doesn't get any easier. On one hand, that's tough; on the other hand, there's great opportunity. This is Game 3 of hopefully a long season ahead of us.

We'll address it. Credit all the world to Coach Izzo and Michigan State.

Q. At the start, how much of that was Michigan State sort of being ready and physical right from the get-go? How much of it was your guys needing to adjust to that?

JON SCHEYER: Yeah, I would think it was somewhere in between. Michigan State, they did a lot of that to us. We did not the whole night just play through any resistance. They're physical. They have great experience. I thought that showed tonight.

We weren't able to get to the next action. We just -- the amount of times we just went one-on-one against a set defense, put our head down, got our shot blocked, turned the ball over, I thought that's how they got separation; 13 points in the first half.

So they have a great defense is what they do, but I'm still disappointed in our ability to fight for the rim and fight for better shots.

Q. You mentioned not an easy schedule coming up. What's your message to the team in the locker room?

JON SCHEYER: Well, anytime you lose it's finger pointing time, and you can either decide to make excuses, you can point the finger at somebody else, or you can take collective responsibility.

That's what I'm going to do. I'm responsible for how we played tonight. I'm going to watch the film, going to live in it and move past it quickly because we can't just be in this moment.

But we have plenty of things we can address and plenty of things we can get better in. Most importantly, we've got to play together. That wasn't Duke basketball. We did not play together.

I think it showed. We were very low efficiency. I think then what happens is when you play that way, you probably get a little bit tight, and we missed 11 free throws, multiple front ends in the one and one.

So we'll make sure we're more connected playing the right way.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Blackwell? He kind of seemed to ignite the team, especially later on in the second half when you guys were closing in on the Spartans, just his role bringing a little bit of energy into the group?

JON SCHEYER: Yeah, look, John is not afraid of being a shot maker. I'll be honest with you, I don't think on the perimeter we had anybody play that well. It was that kind of night. He made some shots and gave us a chance against a two-possession game there at the end, but he's got to be better, our guards have to be better. Collectively, everybody. Everybody.

I thought what Sebastian gave us and what Drew gave us, they were just -- they starred in their roles. They defended. They rebounded. They made extra passes. We need more of that.

Q. What do you need to do to get more out of JBB right now? I felt like he was kind of invisible for long stretches today?

JON SCHEYER: I think that's just part of the process. This is a high level process. JoJo is wired for these moments, but we've just got to continue to figure out how to get him -- we got to get him the ball too. Offensively we've got to look for him. We've got to put him in better positions.

And then it's just the things you have to learn as a 17 year old, just how to impact the game without the ball, defense, rebounding. I was proud of him, man, because he came back in and he showed some great competitiveness, got the rebound.

But we've got to be better in getting him shots and we've got to be better just -- and JoJo is going to continue to learn and grow from this. We're going to go through some of these moments this year. That's what we want to do with him.

Q. What does Fears do that allows him to manipulate everything and makes it really hard for you guys to take him out of any sort of a rhythm?

JON SCHEYER: Well, at the end of the day, he played with amazing control over the game. It's hard to stop a guy if you give him 17 free throws. It's really difficult. That was a big point of emphasis for us. I've got to go back and watch how much of that was us, how much of that is him. He does a great job initiating.

But that's right there. And our pick-and-roll defense was the worst it's been since I can remember. We were switching up coverages. We gave them way too much freedom. That's something we've got to address. But that was very disappointing.

Q. It seemed like every time it looked like you might make a run they got an and-1 or a three from a different guy. As much attention as Fears gets, was this kind of a strength-in-numbers win for Michigan State?

JON SCHEYER: Yeah, no question. Fears, at the end of the day, I think you've got to tip your cap to him. He controlled the whole game. He did. So I think they have scoring from different places, but he sets so much of that up. He draws so much attention.

Really, we did the worst of both. You either want to try to make him score and take away others, or you want to try to make him play make and take away his scoring. We did neither. We fouled him 12 times in the game.

I thought there were other guys, Scott, Carr, Ward, Jervis; they just played within themselves, and I thought Medlock, when he came in gave them a big lift.

You've got to credit those guys for sure.

Q. You just mentioned Jordan Scott. How much did you feel like he affected the game, especially on the defensive end when you guys were trying to score?

JON SCHEYER: Look, coming in I thought Scott was their second-best player. He didn't even have that good of a scoring night. Nine rebounds, six blocked shots. He just impacts winning. He just really impacts winning. You've got to give him a lot of credit.

His size on the perimeter, that's usually what we have. His size I think bothered us. Six blocks, I think that tells a story. But yeah, big fan of him, and he did a great job.

Q. The lack of connectivity on the offense, particularly early, you guys have not shown that in the exhibitions and early in the games here. How surprising was that that that happened?

JON SCHEYER: Yeah, I was surprised because that's not what we preach. That's not how we've practiced. With that said, I thought we played like that in the Army game. I thought there were some signs of it there that we addressed. Came back against Coastal Carolina and I thought we had some beautiful plays.

The thing is as you raise the level, Michigan State has one of the best defenses. Some things that might have worked last week aren't going to work this week. So the ability to work to get open, the ability to make decisions in traffic, the ability on two-on-ones -- we had two-on-ones for dunks that we went in to score. Those plays we're going to address.

At the end of the day, for our group, we have guys that just are used to making their impact through scoring, so there is going to be an evolution and adjustment for that. That's why Sebastian and Drew, they were the only two guys tonight where we won the minutes. Everybody else, we lost those minutes.

Pat didn't have his best stuff by any means. Pat has been out and sick and we've got to get him back.

But all in all, it comes down to our lack of fighting through resistance, playing together, and Michigan State outplaying us, bottom line.