On a night that saw him seal the ACC Championship, Jon Scheyer’s heart was filled for another reason. In a typical March weekend that finally proved Duke’s might in the nation, Jon Scheyer won much more than just an ACC Championship.

The Blue Devils won the finals against Virginia in a back-and-forth game, leading to back-to-back conference titles, indeed a proud moment for head coach Scheyer.

The incident took place during Scheyer’s post-game press conference, when he noticed a familiar face among the reporters: his daughter, Noa. The atmosphere in the media room immediately grew cheerier. The Duke head coach’s daughter, who was wearing an ACC Champions Cap, even asked Scheyer how he managed to win all the games.

Scheyer, in turn, gave a heartfelt reply that has been going viral, garnering around 11.1k views on X alone from a single post shared by the NCAA March Madness handle. “Two losses next to us, but I win every game because I have the best daughter in the world, that’s how. I love you,” the Duke head coach said.

Scheyer’s moment had nothing to do with basketball. Yet, despite that, it quietly framed the idea that, beyond being an ACC Champion and one of the top coaches in the circuit, Scheyer is just a girl’s dad looking to make his family proud. Noa, born in 2018, is Scheyer and his wife Marcelle’s firstborn. They also have two sons, Jett and James.

The Duke head coach loves to spend quality time off-court with his children and has been spotted together at several events, including their MLB day out and a Chicago Cubs game.

From an on-court perspective, it was a historic night for Scheyer’s program on Saturday, as they became the only team in the ACC to win the conference triad of football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball in the same season. In the finals against Virginia, the Blue Devils were quite formidable. They indeed missed a lot of shots from the field, scoring just 38% in the game, but they more than compensated by outrebounding the Cavaliers 41-31.

Along similar lines, Virginia’s struggles with persistent fouling also played to Duke’s advantage. The Blue Devils punished the Cavaliers, converting 16 of 20 free throws. Isaiah Evans led the scoring for Jon Scheyer’s team with 20 on the night, while the Boozer brothers combined for 29 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists.

These factors were enough for Duke to win the ACC Championship and strengthen their subsequent automatic qualification bid, prompting head coach Scheyer to finally catch a breather after a hectic conference play.

Jon Scheyer Expresses Pride in Duke’s Mentality This Season

Duke’s championship heroics weren’t built upon the smoothest of roads this year. With injuries to crucial players like Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba, the Blue Devils’ squad rotation became severely limited, raising questions about their ability to pull off a title amid such circumstances. The scrutiny tightened even more with a narrow one-point escape in the quarterfinals against Florida State.

But Jon Scheyer’s team didn’t even flinch, clinching the next two rounds with ease. Even from an overall perspective in the season, the Blue Devils had to fare against tough opponents like Florida and Arkansas, which they have countered perfectly. And the head coach knows that it has a lot to do with the strong mentality he has tried to instill in his team.

“I have the ultimate belief in this team,” the Duke coach said. “The schedule we’ve played, for me this year, has been the hardest schedule, when you combine the non-conference schedule, the improvement in the ACC, and the different tests we’ve been in. That was a goal for me after last year, like, let’s see how many tough situations we can put our guys in.

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“The way they’ve stepped up and answered almost every test. When we haven’t, we’ve come back really strong,” Scheyer added.

With the ACC Championship win, Jon Scheyer’s team has now strengthened the chances of being a No.1 seed at the March Madness. The reality will eventually set in over the next few hours, with Selection Sunday on March 15. What are your expectations from the Duke Blue Devils for the Big Dance? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments.