Duke Basketball War Cry for 2025-26 Season

With the start of practices for the 2025-26 NCAA Basketball season, a string of Duke practice videos will begin to come out. One of which, from day 1 of practice, was recently published to the Duke basketball social media account. The most intriguing part of this short clip is the last word you hear before the screen goes blank: “kaizen.” 

The term kaizen refers to a Japanese methodology of continued, incremental improvements to achieve grand cumulative results from small changes. This term also clearly highlights Jon Scheyer‘s philosophy.

Duke Basketball War Cry

Scheyer and His Schedule

Last week, Scheyer appeared on Jon Rothstein’s podcast and a hot topic was the insane nonconference schedule that Scheyer decided to create. While he says “Maybe I’ll tell you that I’m the dumbest guy you’ve ever met,” the meat of the belief is in the rest of the conversation.

Scheyer discusses the impact last season had on him and how he created this schedule in the vision of that team. Duke played tough games in early on that they lost, including to Kentucky and Kansas. In both games, they came up quite small in crunch time. They then went on a huge win streak with minimal other crunch time performances aside from a loss to Clemson until they met their demise by losing a game they had wrapped up in the Final Four.

This season, Scheyer knows the losses are coming. However, all that matters is they continue to build incrementally, resulting in a deep March Madness run. Sound familiar? Kaizen.

The Youth Movement

Another huge part of the Duke story this year will be the youth movement. Last year, that was much of the same with three starters being true freshmen. This year, there will likely be two freshmen starters, two sophomores who saw limited action, and a junior who lost his spot in the rotation for half the season. While there will be some experience, this really should be treated as a new, young group.

With a youth movement, you need to see incremental improvements and you expect a jump midseason or else you may be in for a long year. Think of Cooper Flagg‘s team. Duke looked just average early on despite all the talent. They then found their stride and had one of the most dominant teams in the last few decades of college basketball.

The Blue Devils will absolutely take their lumps early. However, all they need to do is continue to build on an already strong and talented foundation. They must not let go of the rope. And then, when they have the big wins, the fundamental belief that they can cut down nets in April begins to take shape.

Jon Scheyer’s Foundation

Coach K retired at the end of the 2021-22 season. Since then, Scheyer has done nothing short of impress. In year one, they won the ACC tournament and made it to the round of 32 but had a ton of injury issues. Year two, Elite Eight. Year three, ACC tournament and regular season champs and a Final Four. Year four, to be determined.

That is incremental improvement at it’s best though. While each year and each group is different, Scheyer and his philosophy remains steady. Duke will be highly talented, create great relationships, and play hard with a focus on the defensive end. They will be challenged and tested and they will eventually be the last team standing. Kaizen.