When Duke needed something, anything, to save itself from spending the weekend at home and leaving the ACC tournament minus its star attraction, Jon Scheyer returned.
Until the final few minutes of Duke's hard-earned, 57-46 victory over Virginia today, Scheyer had spent the afternoon missing shots, shaking his head and appearing understandably frustrated. Going two-for-10 from the field in the first half will do that to a guy.
When Virginia cut Duke’s lead to 46-44 with 6:18 remaining, a genuine wave of noise and nervousness entered the Greensboro Coliseum. As quickly as it did, though, the danger to Duke passed.
After Nolan Smith doubled Duke’s lead to four with a tip-in, Scheyer suddenly looked like the potential player of the year again. He slipped inside for a short bank shot that gave the Blue Devils a six-point margin.
Then Kyle Singler got into the act with his own bucket, and Scheyer finished off the Cavaliers with a pair of twisting drives, the second resulting in a three-point play that sent the Blue Devils into the weekend's semifinals.
That's what the best players do. They find a way, no matter how bad it has gone, to get it done when it's time.
Duke is built around its so-called Big Three with Singler and Smith, but Scheyer is the one who makes them go. He's an unconventional matchup for opponents and the kind of creative force that makes the Blue Devils greater than the sum of their parts.
For Scheyer, a day to forget turned into another afternoon to remember. With more to come.
-- Ron Green Jr.
Ron Green Jr. has been covering ACC sports for decades. He attended Mike Krzyzewski's introductory press conference at Duke; remembers when South Carolina was the southern-most school in league; and he thought he'd seen it all, then saw Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl. 
