No. 8 Duke will be without its head coach Wednesday night against Wake Forest.
In what would have been his final game coaching at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Mike Krzyzewski is will miss No. 8 Duke vs. Wake Foest due to a non-COVID-related illness, the team announced. The university also confirmed that assistant coach Jon Scheyer will serve as acting coach for the game against the Demon Deacons.
The Hall of Famer will be retiring at the end of the season with Scheyer chosen as Coach K’s successor. This will be the second time Krzyzewski will hand over the keys to Scheyer in the past two seasons. After one of Krzyzewski’s family members tested positive with COVID-19 in January 2021, Coach K was forced to quarantine.
Scheyer helped lead the Blue Devils to an 83-82 win against Boston College on Jan. 6, 2021.
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Over his 42 seasons with the Blue Devils’ program, Krzyzewski is 57-28 against Wake Forest and went 18-12 at the coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C.. He recorded a 86-60 victory, his final one, against the Demon Deacons on Feb. 17, 2021.
Duke had two games postponed in December as the program battled through a rampant COVID-19 outbreak. Since coming back from the short pause, the Blue Devils recorded a 67-57 win against Georgia Tech and suffered a close 76-74 loss to Miami.
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Duke will look to get back on track Wednesday with Scheyer 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 straight and 13 of 14 at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum this season.