Duke basketball hiring Emanuel Dildy as assistant coach

After a nationwide search, Duke is hiring Oklahoma assistant coach Emanuel Dildy to its staff, per multiple industry and team sources. Dildy will fill the vacancy on Jon Scheyer’s bench created earlier this summer, when former assistant Amile Jefferson left to take a job with the Boston Celtics.

Scheyer considered several other candidates, including at least one with significant Duke ties, before ultimately settling on Dildy, sources added. Dildy’s hiring is expected to be announced publicly in the coming days, potentially even before the team’s NIL trip to Chicago this weekend.

Last summer, in his first offseason as head coach, Scheyer made two hires from outside the Duke coaching tree: assistant Jai Lucas, whom he hired from Kentucky, and general manager Rachel Baker, who had never worked for a college program but had extensive basketball experience at Nike. Scheyer told The Athletic last preseason that he valued the diversity of thought those two brought to the table, and both made immediate positive impacts on the program; Lucas was even promoted to associate head coach this summer, after a single season keying the Blue Devils’ defense. Lucas and Baker’s success validated Scheyer’s decision to go outside “The Brotherhood” — and also paved the way for another such hire.

So, why Dildy? At 42, he’s regarded as a strong recruiter nationally with promising developmental chops on the court. At Northwestern — where he served under former Duke assistant Chris Collins — Dildy played a key role in assembling the highest-rated recruiting class in program history, which included a pair of top-100 commits in 2021. And at Loyola Chicago before that, he helped recruit the foundation of the Ramblers’ 2018 Final Four team. That’s how Dildy ended up back in Norman in 2021, due to his connection to Porter Moser, his former boss at Loyola Chicago.

From Duke (and Scheyer’s) perspective, Dildy checks a number of boxes. First, his recruiting prowess should be a boon for a staff which already landed the No. 1 and No. 2 classes, respectively, in 2022 and 2023. Keeping the elite talent pipeline flowing to, and through, Durham is imperative. But Dildy also makes a ton of sense given where the rest of Scheyer’s staff stands — namely, that Lucas is on the fast-track for a head coaching gig, and is expected to be a top candidate the next two hiring cycles. If Lucas were to leave next offseason, or even the year after, it would obviously create another vacancy, so Scheyer is looking for stability with this hire to mitigate that looming likelihood. Lastly, Dildy maintains diversity on Duke’s staff, something that was important to Krzyzewski during his tenure and which Scheyer has continued.

Because Duke is a private university, Dildy’s contract details will not be revealed publicly.

(Photo of Emanuel Dildy, center: Ben Hsu / Associated Press)