Duke basketball found its identity, and Jon Scheyer wants to elevate it

Duke basketball learned what its identity can be in January.

Now, in February, head coach Jon Scheyer wants his team to elevate that identity.

“(February is) also a month to learn, I hope,” Scheyer said on Monday, Feb. 3 on the weekly ACC coaches Zoom. “I think it’s a month to grow. We learned, I think, what our identity can be and then in February, you want to continue to elevate these things you have learned this past month, in my mind. I think that’s exactly where we’re at.”

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The No. 4 Blue Devils (20-1, 9-0) finished the month of January a perfect 8-0. It marks their fifth unbeaten month under Scheyer and Duke’s second-straight undefeated January.

Scheyer previously said his squad felt re-energized following its West Coast swing midway through the month, and the Blue Devils’ results back that up. They opened January with a slim four-point road win at Florida State and closed with a 14-point road victory at Virginia Tech – Duke’s fifth straight double-digit win going back to its game at Cal on Jan. 14. The Blue Devils won their first three games of the month by an average of 7.3 points and won the last five by an average of 22.2.

Duke lost the points-in-the-paint battle in two of its first three games of January, going on to post 40 or more points in the paint in each of its last five games of the month, with a high of 48 against Wake Forest. A similar trend can be found on the boards, where the Blue Devils were outworked by SMU on Jan. 10, 30-23, and went on to finish the month with a rebounding advantage of plus-69 across their last five games. That includes outworking Louisville 47-26 on the glass in the team’s Jan. 26 contest after only edging the Cardinals by two on the boards in the Jan. 6 contest.

DUKE BASKETBALL IN THE POLLS: Where Duke basketball ranks in polls, NET rankings after an unbeaten January

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FROM VIRGINIA TECH WIN: What Jon Scheyer said after Duke basketball’s road win at Virginia Tech

“I think we’re finding our identity,…

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Publish date : 2026-02-03 09:06:00

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