New Duke guard Sion James, who committed to transfer to Durham on Friday morning, isn’t just popular among Blue Devils fans.
According to a report from longtime college basketball insider Jeff Goodman, one coach thinks that head coach Jon Scheyer found the perfect player.
“I think Duke got a steal,” the coach said, according to Goodman’s post on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter).
The coach said James, who measures in at 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, can play any position on the court. They praised James’ basketball intelligence and pointed to how he improved as a 3-point shooter during his time with the Green Wave.
As a freshman in 2020-21, James took 1.1 3-pointers per game and made just 28.0% of his looks. As a junior last season, he averaged 3.6 attempts per game and connected on 38.1% of them.
“That speaks for his work ethic itself,” the coach added.
Goodman’s report also raved about James’ defensive ability, as the Tulane guard averaged 1.6 steals and 0.6 blocks per game for his career.
“If you could go into a machine and make a stereotype old school Duke players, that’s Sion,” the coach concluded.
Sion James scouting report from a coach.
“I think Duke got a steal.
Can play any position. Very High IQ. The knock on him before was that he couldn’t shoot, but he worked on it and shot 38 percent from 3 this year. So that speaks for his work ethic itself.
His defense and… https://t.co/HHxIsxRNfj
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) May 10, 2024
James became the third transfer to commit to head coach Jon Scheyer after Mason Gillis from Purdue and Maliq Brown from Syracuse.