Tag: Cameron Sheffield

All four Duke basketball transfers choose new numbers with the Blue Devils

All four Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball transfers will switch jersey numbers as well as programs this offseason.

Duke basketball released its jersey numbers for the 2024-25 season, and all four new faces will wear a different number than they did at their old school.

Syracuse’s Maliq Brown and Tulane’s Sion James didn’t have much of a choice, in all fairness. They both wore No. 1 for their old programs, but returning guard Caleb Foster already called dibs on that number during his freshman season in 2023-24.

Brown will instead don No. 6, and James will wear No. 14.

By luck, the only two returning Blue Devils starters blocked three of the four incoming transfers from their old numbers. Rice transfer Cameron Sheffield ran wore No. 5 for the Owls, but junior Tyrese Proctor wore that number for the last two years and he’ll also be back. Sheffield swapped to No. 13.

Mason Gillis wore No. 0 when he played for Purdue. Even though the number is available (Jared McCain wore it as a freshman last season, but he’d headed to the NBA), Gillis instead switched to No. 18.

Check out a full list of Duke’s 2024-25 basketball roster with updated jersey numbers here.

Duke Blue Devils get two transfer commitments from Rice in two days

The Duke Blue Devils got two transfer commitments from Rice in two days, first for the football team and then again for the basketball team.

The Duke Blue Devils got two transfer portal commitments from Rice in two days, first with a cornerback for the football team on Wednesday before an additional member of the men’s basketball team joined on Thursday.

Tre’Shon Devones, a 6-foot cornerback who spent the past four seasons with the Owls, announced he’d play his last season for first-year coach Manny Diaz.

The breakout 2023 corner picked off two passes last season and ended the year with 13 passes defended, tied for the 24th-most among FBS corners. He also racked up a career-high 45 tackles.

Less than 24 hours later, former schoolmate Cameron Sheffield announced he’d join the Duke men’s basketball team. The fourth transfer commitment of the offseason for head coach Jon Scheyer sat out last season with a foot injury, but he finished the 2022-23 campaign with 7.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.

The two Rice standouts get to start school together again once more this fall.

Duke basketball transfers Sion James, Cameron Sheffield once faced off in state title game

Sion James and Cameron Sheffield, two of the newest Blue Devils, already put together a classic battle on the court years ago.

Duke basketball added a fourth transfer to its 2024-25 offseason class on Thursday when Rice’s Cameron Sheffield announced his commitment.

Sheffield joins three other Blue Devils in the upcoming transfer class, including former Tulane star Sion James. The two won’t need to be introduced, however.

Back in 2020, as seniors in high school, the two prospects met in the Georgia 6A State Final. James, who was already committed to the Green Wave, scored 28 points for Lanier. However, Sheffield scored 31 points for Chattahoochie and led his team to a 69-66 overtime victory.

James, a three-star prospect according to 247Sports, was the 59th-ranked point guard in the Class of 2020. He averaged a career-high 14.0 points per game last season, and he finished his Tulane career with 3.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

Sheffield did not bring any stars with him to Rice despite the standout state title performance. He sat out the 2023-24 season with a foot injury, but he played 95 games for the Owls across the previous three seasons. He averaged 7.6 points and 6.1 rebounds in his last full season.

After four seasons of college basketball, the two will finally play for the same team.

The best photos of Duke basketball’s transfer players with their old schools

With Duke adding its fourth transfer of the offseason on Thursday, here are some of the best photos of the Blue Devils of tomorrow.

The six freshmen in Duke’s upcoming recruiting class might be stealing all of the headlines, but don’t forget about the veterans.

Four new upperclassmen committed to the Blue Devils over the course of this offseason, each offering very different skill sets.

James, a 6-foot-6 guard from Tulane with eyebrow-raising athleticism, might be one of the best slashers and finishers in the country. Former Purdue Boilermaker Mason Gillis made more than 46% of his 3-pointers last season, and former Syracuse forward Maliq Brown finished the 2023-24 season with an effective field goal percentage above 70%.

Cameron Sheffield of Rice tacked onto the list with his Thursday commitment after sitting out the 2023-24 season with a foot injury. He averaged 7.6 points and 6.1 rebounds across 35 games in 2022-23, however.

Blue Devils fans will need to be patient before they see the newest Duke stars at Cameron Indoor Stadium. In the meantime, here are some of the best looks at the four transfers while they were with their old schools.

Duke adds experienced three point threat from Rice as fourth transfer portal addition

The Duke Blue Devils added sharpshooting guard Cameron Sheffield out of Rice via the NCAA transfer portal.

Jon Scheyer and the Duke Blue Devils added a fourth player via transfer portal this offseason – and second from the AAC – when Rice guard Cameron Sheffield announced his commitment on Thursday via Instagram.

Sheffield is a 6’6 graduate transfer with two years of eligibility remaining. He played at Rice for three seasons from 2020-2023 but sat out all of last season with a foot injury.

He started 34 out of 35 games for the Owls in the 2022-23 season, playing 31 minutes per night and averaging 7.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.3 assists while shooting 52.9% on two pointers and 37.3% from beyond the arc on 3.4 attempts per game.

Sheffield is a tenacious rebounder for his size as well as a strong defender, drawing a team-high 27 charges in 2022-23. His toughness, physicality, and outside shooting will make him a versatile role player for the Blue Devils – continuing a trend for coach Scheyer this offseason.

So far Duke has used the transfer portal to add valuable role players to supplement the star power of incoming freshman Cooper Flagg and returning guards Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster.

In addition to Sheffield, Duke added grad transfer wing Mason Gillis from Purdue, forward Maliq Brown from Syracuse, and fellow AAC guard Sion James from Tulane.

Jon Scheyer and Duke add Rice graduate transfer Cameron Sheffield to 2024-25 roster

Cameron Sheffield became the second Rice player to commit to the Blue Devils in two days after the football team landed cornerback Tre’Shon Devones.

Duke basketball and head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] landed the fourth transfer commitment of the 2024-25 offseason on Thursday when Rice’s Cameron Sheffield announced his decision on social media.

A longtime starter for the Owls, Sheffield played 95 games (with 55 starts) since the start of the 2020-21 season. He averaged 7.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game in the 2022-23 season, his last year on the court.

He also shot 37.3% from 3-point range that year, his best career mark, and he managed that efficiency despite averaging more than three attempts from beyond the arc per game.

Sheffield redshirted this past season after a foot injury kept him out for the year.

The former Owl joins Sion James of Tulane, Maliq Brown of Syracuse, and Mason Gillis of Purdue in the Blue Devils’ incoming transfer class.

At 6-foot-6, Sheffield also contributes to Duke’s massive height. The Blue Devils don’t have a player on the roster below 6-foot-5, and the most common starting lineups could be an average of 80 inches tall.

Sheffield, funnily enough, becomes the second Rice transfer in two days for Duke University. The Blue Devils football team added 6-foot cornerback Tre’Shon Devones on Wednesday night.