Lea: The 'Duke Tax.' Why Jon Scheyer isn't being considered for ACC Coach of the Year, but should be

By Chris Lea, WRAL-TV sports anchor/reporter

I unintentionally started a bit of a fire storm on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday that had other local journalists, Louisville fans and college basketball fans alike questioning my sanity. These days, having a different, non-groupthink sports take will have people questioning your sanity, which is another conversation.

First, here was my tweet.

If we’re being honest… Jon Scheyer is ACC Coach of the year. Because it’s Duke folks may feel the need to vote Pat Kelsey, but Scheyer is who deserves it the most.

— Chris Lea - Sportscaster (@ChrisLeaTV) March 3, 2025

It was just simply an opinion I tossed out with little rationale to back it up at the time. Just my thoughts.

Here is one of the more hilarious responses.

Chris,

Send me your drug dealer ASAP

Best
Dam

— Dam Crum (@dancrum126) March 4, 2025

To ease your mind, I had to pass a drug test to even be employed by WRAL, so all is good over here!

People are allowed to disagree, which is why I don't mind folks saying Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey should be ACC Coach of the Year. I'd be inclined to agree if Duke head coach Jon Scheyer weren't putting together a historic season at Duke.

Let's stay on Kelsey.

Louisville indeed was in the dumps when Kelsey took over. The Cardinals won a combined 12 games over the last two seasons under Kenny Payne and, as of this writing, Kelsey has the Cardinals ranked No. 14 in the AP Top 25 Poll with a 23-6 overall record. That is an incredible turnaround and one of the best jobs any coach has done this season.

The only reason Kelsey isn't my choice is because of what I described earlier as historic.

This year's Duke Blue Devils are the second-best offense ever, according to KenPom dating back to 1997. Over its last four games, Duke has scored 400 points and not just against ACC talent in what's considered a "down" year for the league. The Blue Devils blitzed the Big Ten's Illinois Fighting Illini at Madison Square Garden 110-67. This is the same Illinois team that beat a Top 15 ranked Michigan by 20. The Illini aren't a scrub team.

Plus, Scheyer just completed his second perfect season at home in his first three years. While doing that, the Blue Devils have won 10 ACC games by 25-plus points, the most by any team in a single season in ACC history. We have literally never seen what Duke is doing before.

With the 33-point victory, Duke now has won 10 ACC games by 25+ points, the most by any team in a single season in ACC history.

The Blue Devils have posted nine victories by a margin of 30 points or more, including the last four straight.

— #DukeMBBStats (@DukeMBBStats) March 4, 2025

For the folks who don't think Scheyer should win at all, there's an elephant in the room. I'll call it the "Duke Tax."

The last time former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski won ACC Coach of the year was in the 1999-2000 season. In his final 22 years, he won three national titles, 10 ACC Tournament titles and countless other accolades without being considered the best coach in the ACC. And since passing the reins to Scheyer in an almost seamless fashion, that has disqualified Scheyer from contention in many people's minds.

One took over a program by coach k, the other from Kenny Payne.

— MichiganFan1985 (@Fan1985Michigan) March 4, 2025

That's the "Duke Tax." But you could also argue there's also a "Tar Heel Tax." Coach Roy Williams only won ACC Coach of the Year twice in his 18 seasons. That sounds criminally low to me for both head coaches.

"But Chris, Scheyer has the best roster with the best player in the country!"

A part of the "Duke Tax" is diminishing their accomplishments because of recruiting. However, recruiting is a part of coaching. It's literally one of the more important functions of the job, which Kelsey also excelled at or else he wouldn't be able to turn Louisville around the way he has.

Louisville was able to bring in a top-30 transfer class for this season. For Kelsey, it's an amazing feat. For Duke, it's an "unfair advantage."

Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban recently said this on the "Pivot" podcast: "We wouldn't be able to do what we did if we didn't have a whole bunch of good people in the organization. I never learned how to coach bad players to play good. Never. So I always recruited my a** off, so we always had good players."

Saban is widely regarded as one of the best college football coaches ever, and there one of the all-time greats admitted that a huge part of his success is recruiting.

Do we diminish the accomplishments of companies like Apple, NVIDIA or Microsoft because they recruit the best talent in the technology field? We do not.

But when it comes to coaching (specifically Duke), recruiting all of a sudden becomes a disqualifer. Folks on X have accused me of being a "homer" or showing "bias," but to me, this is bias on the other end.

One of the best college football coaches ever said this… So the “Scheyer has the best roster” argument isn’t sound enough to disqualify him from COY. Recruiting and roster building is also a factor in good coaching. https://t.co/pX466Ky74a pic.twitter.com/IcAs5QveHI

— Chris Lea - Sportscaster (@ChrisLeaTV) March 3, 2025

"Duke Tax."

I believe Kelsey will end up winning ACC Coach of the Year, and it's honestly not a bad choice. I will congratulate him and applaud him for the work he's done. I hate that his wonderful season had to happen at the same time as Scheyer's historic year and that we have to choose.

But if we acknowledge the real accomplishments by Duke this year, then the choice is clear: Jon Scheyer is the ACC's Coach of the Year.