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One half of one game. That’s all Scheyer needed to see.
Up until this summer, Schutt says he was mostly being recruited by Big Ten and some Big 12 schools, including Iowa and Michigan State. Then his grassroots team, the Illinois Wolves, won seven games and an Under Armour Association championship this summer in Atlanta — and Schutt, as his team’s leading scorer, attracted plenty of attention.
“I had gone through all my other offers,” Schutt says, “but I was like, I’m going to keep working, because there’s a level above all those schools that have offered me. I can either stay complacent, or go out there and prove to myself I can go get a blue-blood offer. You know, play at the highest level.”
It was shortly after returning from Atlanta that Duke first reached out to Schutt. He’d flown back with his teammates, while his parents drove. At one point, Lori texted to ask if Schutt had made it home yet, but he quickly responded: Can’t talk right now. Talking to Duke. Seconds later, Scheyer had texted Schutt’s parents, too, asking if they could hop on the phone to discuss their son. “The fact that right away he wanted to talk to us and just share the excitement that he had in what he saw in Jaden,” Lori says, “that really touched us.”
Schutt got Duke coach-in-waiting Jon Scheyer’s eye last summer.
As talented as the Blue Devils’ current roster is, it’s fair to expect significant roster turnover this offseason. Paolo Banchero, A.J. Griffin, Mark Williams, Trevor Keels and Wendell Moore Jr. have a chance at being selected in the first round of this summer’s NBA Draft. And while Scheyer has a star-studded class coming in outside of Schutt — he joins center Dereck Lively II (No. 1 player in the class, per the 247Sports Composite), forward Kyle Filipowski (No. 3), wing Dariq Whitehead (No. 5), wing Mark Mitchell (No. 13), and center Christian Reeves (No. 167) — none of Duke’s other commits are quite the shooter Schutt is. Accordingly, it’s not hard to envision Schutt seeing the court as a true freshman.
And on his visit to Duke, the family had plenty of time to ask those sorts of questions. Lori, Jeff, and Jaden all point to overlapping things they enjoyed on that visit: that Duke’s strength staff laid out a detailed conditioning and nutrition plan for Schutt, something other schools hadn’t done; the opportunity to meet with Mike Krzyzewski, who will still be around in a fundraising role for the university; a tour of the campus and Cameron Indoor Stadium, a significant size jump from Yorkville Christian but not to an overwhelming level.
All of this teed Schutt up for an ideal fit of player and program. The deciding factor? “The conversations I had with Scheyer and the coaching staff, even over the phone, it’s like, ‘OK, I enjoy talking to these guys.’ When I see someone from Duke is calling, I always wanted to pick up the phone and talk to these guys,” Schutt says. “A lot of guys from other schools, you’re thinking, ‘Do I have to take this?’ Like, pretend you didn’t see it.” Scheyer even went so far as to play chess with Schutt, who is still learning the game, over the phone; allegedly, Scheyer won in four moves. That loss in chess sent Schutt scrambling to the computer to practice, but it also cemented that he wanted to play for the man he still remembers winning a national title in 2010.
Basically a week after that visit, Schutt called Scheyer back with one message: “I want you to be my coach.”
Up until this summer, Schutt says he was mostly being recruited by Big Ten and some Big 12 schools, including Iowa and Michigan State. Then his grassroots team, the Illinois Wolves, won seven games and an Under Armour Association championship this summer in Atlanta — and Schutt, as his team’s leading scorer, attracted plenty of attention.
“I had gone through all my other offers,” Schutt says, “but I was like, I’m going to keep working, because there’s a level above all those schools that have offered me. I can either stay complacent, or go out there and prove to myself I can go get a blue-blood offer. You know, play at the highest level.”
It was shortly after returning from Atlanta that Duke first reached out to Schutt. He’d flown back with his teammates, while his parents drove. At one point, Lori texted to ask if Schutt had made it home yet, but he quickly responded: Can’t talk right now. Talking to Duke. Seconds later, Scheyer had texted Schutt’s parents, too, asking if they could hop on the phone to discuss their son. “The fact that right away he wanted to talk to us and just share the excitement that he had in what he saw in Jaden,” Lori says, “that really touched us.”
Schutt got Duke coach-in-waiting Jon Scheyer’s eye last summer.
As talented as the Blue Devils’ current roster is, it’s fair to expect significant roster turnover this offseason. Paolo Banchero, A.J. Griffin, Mark Williams, Trevor Keels and Wendell Moore Jr. have a chance at being selected in the first round of this summer’s NBA Draft. And while Scheyer has a star-studded class coming in outside of Schutt — he joins center Dereck Lively II (No. 1 player in the class, per the 247Sports Composite), forward Kyle Filipowski (No. 3), wing Dariq Whitehead (No. 5), wing Mark Mitchell (No. 13), and center Christian Reeves (No. 167) — none of Duke’s other commits are quite the shooter Schutt is. Accordingly, it’s not hard to envision Schutt seeing the court as a true freshman.
And on his visit to Duke, the family had plenty of time to ask those sorts of questions. Lori, Jeff, and Jaden all point to overlapping things they enjoyed on that visit: that Duke’s strength staff laid out a detailed conditioning and nutrition plan for Schutt, something other schools hadn’t done; the opportunity to meet with Mike Krzyzewski, who will still be around in a fundraising role for the university; a tour of the campus and Cameron Indoor Stadium, a significant size jump from Yorkville Christian but not to an overwhelming level.
All of this teed Schutt up for an ideal fit of player and program. The deciding factor? “The conversations I had with Scheyer and the coaching staff, even over the phone, it’s like, ‘OK, I enjoy talking to these guys.’ When I see someone from Duke is calling, I always wanted to pick up the phone and talk to these guys,” Schutt says. “A lot of guys from other schools, you’re thinking, ‘Do I have to take this?’ Like, pretend you didn’t see it.” Scheyer even went so far as to play chess with Schutt, who is still learning the game, over the phone; allegedly, Scheyer won in four moves. That loss in chess sent Schutt scrambling to the computer to practice, but it also cemented that he wanted to play for the man he still remembers winning a national title in 2010.
Basically a week after that visit, Schutt called Scheyer back with one message: “I want you to be my coach.”
