Jon Scheyer Handling Duke Basketball Guard Caleb Foster With Honesty

Caleb Foster averaged 7.7 points and 25.4 minutes in 27 games as a Duke basketball freshman under Jon Scheyer before an injury cut short the lifelong Blue Devil enthusiast’s debut campaign in Durham. Now, through 26 outings as a sophomore, his averages are down to 5.0 points and 14.9 minutes.

The 6-foot-5, 202-pound guard, a former five-star prep, dropped from the starting lineup in early December. And Foster has been pretty much absent from the No. 3-ranked Blue Devils’ primary rotation since the last week of January.

So, Scheyer addressed the Foster situation at length during his Zoom call with media on Thursday afternoon:

“I think Caleb and I would say, this isn’t how we thought the season would go for him.

“And you can do one of two things. You can make excuses — I’m saying for either of us — and you can point the finger. Or you can keep doubling down on the process and addressing what has to be done for it to improve. And that’s what I’ve focused on with Caleb.

“Our group has played at a really high level. I still feel we need him. I still feel, at some point here, there’s gonna be a game, a breakthrough.

“But for me, that happens in practice. And you have to just throw yourself into it, which is hard because, as a player, you want to make an impact. But you have to throw yourself into just being consumed with competing and the game.

“And we have to get him to where he’s playing instinctual and competing instinctually.

“I’ll always keep supporting him and building him up — not gonna get into the private conversations, of course, the private things. But overall, it’s the not giving up…

“There’s five games left. It feels like it’s over in a second. But I still feel we have a lot of basketball left to be played.

“And so, we’ve gotta have everybody ready, Caleb included, because just like I said with Maliq [Brown], Caleb has a different skillset, too, with his ability to break people down, his ability to get in the paint.

“But at the same time, our team has a good rhythm. So, that’s something as a coach, you’re trying to balance and you’re trying to bring everybody along, handle it with care, honesty, and we’ll keep working with him. And I think there’s a breakthough here to be had for him.”