The No. 8 Duke will be without his head coach Wednesday night against Wake Forest.
In what would have been his last coaching game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Mike Krzyzewski will miss the No. 8 Duke vs. Wake Foest due to non-COVID-related illness, the team announced. The university also confirmed that assistant coach Jon Scheyer will serve as interim coach for the game against the Demon Deacons.
The Hall of Fame will retire at the end of the season with Scheyer chosen as coach K. This will be the second time Krzyzewski has handed over the keys to Scheyer in the past two seasons. After one of Krzyzewski’s family members tested positive for COVID-19 in January 2021, Coach K was forced to self-quarantine.
Scheyer helped the Blue Devils win 83-82 against Boston College on January 6, 2021.
During his 42 seasons with the Blue Devils program, Krzyzewski is 57-28 against Wake Forest and was 18-12 at the Winston-Salem, NC Coliseum. He achieved an 86-60 victory, his last, against the Demon Deacons on February 17, 2021.
Duke had two games postponed in December as the show battled a rampant outbreak of COVID-19. Since returning from the brief hiatus, the Blue Devils posted a 67-57 victory against Georgia Tech and suffered a narrow 76-74 loss to Miami.
Duke will look to get back to normal on Wednesday and Scheyer is expected to rely on freshman Paolo Banchero, who leads the team with 17.3 points and 7.5 rebounds. On the other hand, the Demon Deacons (13-3) have won seven in a row and 13 of 14 at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum this season.