Tag: duke blue devils basketball

Multiple Duke basketball players and recruiting targets participating in various offseason camps

Multiple Duke players, alums and recruiting targets participating in offseason camps.

The Duke Blue Devils basketball team has yet to start the season, but the summer is as pivotal as ever for players to improve their game. Whether it’s skill work, weight lifting, conditioning, or playing in actual games, this is the time to work on your craft.

For Duke, the team has moved to campus, practicing, working out, and bonding since June. With the calendar flip to July, things have changed slightly as this year’s roster members have been invited to various camps and player development sessions nationwide.

We documented in June that Cooper Flagg was selected as the only college player to be a part of the Select Team tasked with practicing with Team USA basketball as they prepare for the Olympics. We are now here to add that Tyrese Proctor and Sion James were invited to participate in the 2024 Chris Paul Elite Camp. In addition, freshmen wings Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans were selected to participate in Jayson Tatum’s Elite Camp.

There’s a Duke flavor at both camps. Paolo Banchero, a former Blue Devil, appeared at Paul’s and dominated the competition in some pickup games.

This is also an opportunity for Duke to use it as a mini-recruiting tool. Names like Nate Ament, Jalen Montonati, Nikolas Khamenia, Hudson Greer, Shelton Henderson, Acaden Lewis, and Brayden Burries are all receiving interest from Duke or have offers from Duke. It wouldn’t be farfetched to imagine the high schoolers chatting things up with Proctor, James, Knueppel, and Evans about Duke and what it feels like to be a Duke player.

Plus, it helps when Paolo Banchero and Jayson Tatum are there. It’s too early to tell, but maybe a year from now, we’ll look back and see how many commits for Duke were at these off-season camps.

 

 

247Sports’ Way Too Early 2025 NBA mock draft features five Duke basketball players

Duke places five first rounders in way-too-early mock draft from 247Sports.

With the first round of the 2024 NBA draft having come and gone, 247Sports and many other outlets are already turning their attention to next year. Many NBA franchises are also doing the same thing since the 2025 NBA draft is shaping to be one of the most star-studded drafts in recent memory.

Duke’s Jared McCain went 16th overall to Philadelphia on Wednesday night and ended up being Duke’s only first-round selection for the 2024 draft. Kyle Filipowski fell out of the first round entirely.

Even with one round left in this year’s draft, 247Sports believes Duke will have more than one first-rounder next year if their way-too-early 2025 mock draft is any indication.

There’s a plethora of legit franchise-changing options, and it has the potential to be one of the best crops of draft talent in many years. Where the 2024 draft lacked the high-end superstar type of talent, 2025 makes up for that abundance.

At number one to the Brooklyn Nets, [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] still stands tall. He’s as generational a prospect as Duke has had in the one-and-done era, and the hype will need to be realized this fall when Duke takes the court. His blend of size, athleticism, defensive prowess, and competitiveness has carried him through the prep ranks, but now he’ll have to show he can be the guy on college basketball’s biggest brand in an attempt to lead Duke to its sixth national title.

[autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] is slated to go fifth overall to the Utah Jazz. The 7-footer’s blend of size, length, rim protection, and evolving offensive game, which sees him consistently shooting from a distance, makes him an incredibly enticing center prospect.

[autotag]Caleb Foster[/autotag] received major love in this mock draft. After not being on NBA radars last season as a freshman, there seems to be some major momentum to Foster’s stock, and some in the NBA community are taking notice. Foster has terrific size for a guard prospect, standing at 6-foot-5, and he can play on and off the ball while shooting 40% from 3-point range. His home at Duke this year will be more off the ball as a potent scoring option for Duke while Tyrese Proctor continues to handle the point guard role primarily.

He can shoot and handle the ball and showed how much of a slasher he can be with Duke. Because of the shooting they brought in during the offseason, they will likely spread the court much better, opening up driving lanes galore. This mock has him going to New Orleans with the 14th pick and joining former Blue Devils Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson.

[autotag]Isaiah Evans[/autotag] was picked to land with the Memphis Grizzlies at the 16th pick in this exercise. His length is a problem for defenders at 6-foot-7, and while many compare him to the previously mentioned Ingram, they only share an ability to score and similar collegiate body shapes. Duke has slim players who need to add mass, but Evans is as fiery as they come on the court. He’s a confident player with a dazzling offensive package. He will be asked to be a sparkplug off the bench for Jon Scheyer’s team this year.

The final first-rounder for Duke in this mock draft is [autotag]Kon Kneuppel[/autotag], and he may be the most unknown to Duke fans. While he probably won’t start this year, Knueppel feels like an important player off the bench for the Blue Devils. He is not the most athletic player Duke will play this year, but he’s tough, understands basketball at a high level, and does everything well, especially on the court. He can shoot at a high clip and pass, and at 6-foot-6, he has the size and physicality to bang down low and rebound, too. He was mocked to the current defending champion, Boston Celtics, with the 30th and final pick of the fist round and would play alongside [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag].

Noticeably, Proctor was not named in this mock draft. Proctor’s stock has taken a hit since his freshman year. Still, there’s reason to believe that the Australian can resuscitate his draft stock with a Wendell Moore-like jump as a junior and potentially sneak himself back into consideration.

Duke lands Purdue transfer Mason Gillis

Jon Scheyer and the Duke Blue Devils have landed their second transfer addition after former Purdue forward Mason Gillis announced his commitment to Duke.

Jon Scheyer and the Duke Blue Devils have landed their second transfer addition of the offseason.

Former Purdue forward Mason Gillis announced his commitment to Duke on Monday afternoon, per Joe Tipton of On3 Sports.

Gillis played four seasons at Purdue after redshirting in 2019-20. He was named the Big 10 6th Man of the Year for his play this past season when he averaged 6.5 points and shot 46.8% from beyond the arc.

In his 39 games across the 2023-24 season, he also averaged 3.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, and he shot 47.9% from the floor for the campaign.

The pairing seemed like a long time coming after fans noticed Gillis followed the Blue Devils on Instagram last week. Multiple 247Sports experts gave Crystal Ball predictions that the former Boilermaker would pick Duke.

Gillis brings a veteran guard presence to a Duke squad, having played 132 career games across his collegiate career at Purdue. As of Monday afternoon, Tyrese Proctor is the only other upperclassman in Duke’s backcourt.

Gillis is rated as a four-star transfer, according to 247Sports’ Transfer Portal rankings.

He joins former Syracuse forward Maliq Brown as the second commitment to the Blue Devils this cycle. Head coach Jon Scheyer still has three open scholarship spots as he tries to replace Duke’s 10 departures.

Wisconsin, Kentucky and Duke, 5 years later

Wisconsin’s 2015 Final Four

It is a simple question to ask, but not an easy one to answer. It is a simple A or B choice (with the possibility that one could say “neither” or “both”), but it contains very complicated and competing emotions.

The question is this: Five years later, on what would have been the weekend of the 2020 Final Four, which game lingers more in your memory as a Wisconsin Badger fan — the 2015 Final Four semifinal win over Kentucky, or the championship game loss two nights later against Duke?

Take your time. This is a big question.

It might seem like a stupid question, from both sides of the debate.

Well, DUH, Wisconsin beat a 38-0 team at the Final Four and won its first Final Four game since the 1941 championship game against Washington State. OF COURSE the Kentucky game mattered more!

Well, DUH, Wisconsin had a nine-point second-half lead and was SO CLOSE to winning a national championship in front of 70,000 people on national television… and it was F***ING DUKE we lost to! GRAYSON ALLEN BEAT US! OF COURSE the Duke game mattered more!

Wisconsin made history and gained immortality on Saturday night in Indianapolis. Wisconsin almost made history and almost gained immortality on Monday night in Lucas Oil Stadium.

The 2015 Badgers will always be remembered for ruining Kentucky’s dream of a 40-0 season, which would have been college basketball’s first perfect season since Indiana under Bobby Knight in 1976. Yet, the 2015 Badgers will never be remembered as national champions… because Duke stood in their way and wrested that title from UW’s grasp.

It’s a very complicated question, and there is no definitive right — or wrong — answer. It is very personal, very individual, very much dependent on your story, your lived experience, your journey with the 2015 Badgers and with Wisconsin basketball in general.

The win over Kentucky, in addition to being historic on a national scale (stopping UK’s unbeaten season), gained revenge against the Wildcats for their 2014 Final Four semifinal win over Wisconsin. That made the victory extra sweet for the Badgers and their fans.

The loss to Duke, in addition to denying Wisconsin a first national title in 74 years, occurred to the college basketball team America loves to hate more than any other. The other player — in addition to Grayson Allen — who led the Duke rally down the stretch was Tyus Jones, who was Minnesota-born and almost certainly relished, as a Minnesotan, dealing a Wisconsin team a stinging loss.

The side details of the Saturday victory and the Monday loss are both rich and straight out of a Hollywood script. There were Biblical emotions in both games, a cocktail of boiling hatreds and soaring versions of euphoria. The win over Kentucky could not have been more delicious than it actually was, and the loss to Duke could not have unfolded in a more brutal fashion.

Do you remember the Kentucky win or the Duke loss more, five years later?

Simple question. Complicated emotions. As March turns into April and we contemplate a weekend without the Final Four this year, every Wisconsin fan can think about how the past five years have — or haven’t — changed their minds on this topic.