Jon Scheyer not looking ahead to North Carolina with Wake Forest on tap

Jon Scheyer has played in it before, but the first-year Duke head coach gets a new kind of perspective for arguably the greatest rivalry in sports on Saturday. Scheyer will lead the Blue Devils against North Carolina for the first time as the program’s full-time head coach. In primetime. On ESPN. Little needs to be said about the stakes anytime Duke and Carolina get together.

But before that tape can even hit the screen inside Duke’s meeting room, Scheyer has to get his team ready to face a hungry and desperate Wake Forest team.

When he met with reporters on Monday to preview the game, Scheyer said they have to give the Demon Deacons their full attention.

“They beat the crap out of us last time,” Scheyer said, per The Athletic’s 

Brendan Marks.

When the Blue Devils traveled to Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum for a Dec. 20 meeting, they walked away with an 81-70 loss. They got beat on the boards 37-29. They were out-shot at the free throw line 26-14. And they gave up 34 paint points.

That upset kicked off a run of six wins in seven games for Wake — capped by a 10-point win over ACC-leading Clemson. But since, the Demon Deacons have lost three straight. They currently sit in the “Next Four Out” category in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology

for ESPN.

It’ll be a big game for Wake. Scheyer says it’s a big game for Duke as well.

“It’s all about Wake Forest,” Scheyer said, per Devils Illustrated’s Conor O’Neill. “Look, they beat us. This is a big game for us.”

Tip-off between Duke and Wake Forest is set for 7 p.m. ET (ESPN) on Tuesday.