Tag: Tyrese Proctor

Duke basketball dominates Wofford in best first-half performance under Jon Scheyer

The Duke Blue Devils bounced back with a Saturday win over Wofford behind a scoring avalanche during the opening half.

The Duke Blue Devils knew they wouldn’t erase any lingering questions from Tuesday’s loss to the Kentucky Wildcats with one game, but they sure tried with an 86-35 home victory over the Wofford Terriers.

After missing their first four shots of the afternoon, the Blue Devils caught fire and wouldn’t cool down until the midway point. Days after Duke made just four of their 24 3-point attempts as a team in Atlanta, Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel made back-to-back triples to take the lead in the third minute.

Proctor, the only player who spent each of the past two seasons with head coach Jon Scheyer, roared out of the gates again. After he put together 10 points with two threes in the first 20 minutes against the Wildcats, he tallied nine of the Blue Devils’ first 14 points with an assist on top. He ended the opening frame with 12 points, nearly equaling the Terriers by himself, with two dimes.

After 17-year-old phenom [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] was the only Duke player to make a shot from the floor over the final 10 minutes against Kentucky, Scheyer and the Blue Devils took a different approach on Saturday. From the 15:01 to 5:28 marks in the first half, Duke outscored Wofford 27-2 thanks to eight different players getting to the basket.

Khaman Maluach, the freshman 7-footer, scored seven points in four minutes emphasized by an alley-oop dunk. Fellow first-year center Patrick Ngongba, making his collegiate debut, notched his first career points and won several rebounding battles. Isaiah Evans, yet another member of the 2024 recruiting class, tallied eight points and an assist in his first four minutes on the court thanks to a pair of 3-pointers.

Eleven different players took the court in the first half on Saturday. Nine of them scored at least two points, and eight of them recorded an assist. Despite Flagg only notching five points on five shots, the Blue Devils created a 51-14 advantage after 20 minutes for the largest halftime lead in Scheyer’s three years as head coach.

The Cameron Crazies could pick their favorite stat to detail Saturday’s dominance. Duke finished with 43 rebounds to Wofford’s 29. The Blue Devils recovered with a 16/38 (42.1%) performance from 3-point range. However blowouts can be quantified, Scheyer and his players checked the box. Flagg finished with just eight points, but he stuffed the stat sheet elsewhere with nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks, and three steals for his contribution.

The confidence from Saturday’s win will prove necessary in the coming 10 days. The Blue Devils get nearly a full week off before Saturday’s trip to Arizona for a battle with the Wildcats, and Duke plays top-ranked Kansas in Las Vegas just four days later.

Outside of Cooper Flagg, Duke scored two points in the last 10 minutes against Kentucky

The Duke Blue Devils scored 14 points over the final 10:50 against Kentucky on Tuesday, and 12 of them came from one player.

Duke basketball fans likely left State Farm Arena or turned off their televisions in shock on Tuesday night when the Blue Devils lost to the Kentucky Wildcats.

Duke led their fellow blue blood by nine points at halftime, but after scoring 61 points in the first 30 minutes, the Blue Devils only managed 11 points over the closing stretch.

Superstar freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] drew lots of the visible blame for his two turnovers in the final 15 seconds, turning a tie game into a 77-72 loss, but the 6-foot-9 forward actually kept the game within striking distance by himself during the last 11 minutes.

With 10:51 left in the second half, Purdue transfer Mason Gillis picked up a loose ball and made a short floater to give the 58-53 advantage. It was the last shot made from the floor by someone other than Flagg.

Even ignoring Kon Knueppel’s last-second heave at the buzzer, the Blue Devils missed their final seven shots and two of their last four free throws. Knueppel and Tyrese Proctor, after teaming up for 22 points in the first half, combined for just four in the second.

Flagg, who ended the night with 26 points, put 12 of the team’s last 14 points on the board.

Late Cooper Flagg turnovers cost Duke basketball in second-half collapse against Kentucky

Cooper Flagg tried his best to keep Duke alive against Kentucky, but two costly mistakes in the final seconds cemented the 77-72 loss.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] made several heroic plays for the Duke Blue Devils during his 26-point outing against the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday night, but two late turnovers handed the SEC program a 77-72 victory in a monster second-half comeback.

The Blue Devils led by nine points at the break, but it was actually the Wildcats who came out of the gates on fire. Kentucky ripped off an 18-9 run in the first six minutes thanks to 3-pointers from veteran transfers Andrew Carr, Kerr Kriisa, and Ansley Almonor on three consecutive possessions.

Both teams entered Tuesday’s game shooting better than 40% from 3-point range, but the Wildcats made five of their first seven looks from distance while Duke managed to make just one of their first five.

Despite the shooting imbalance, however, the Blue Devils kept pace, and they eventually found other ways to score as their lead began to bloom.

Flagg, [autotag]Tyrese Proctor[/autotag], and [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag] handed command of the offense back and forth in the opening 20 minutes. Proctor, the returning junior, notched seven of the team’s first 11 points in a variety of ways. He challenged the Kentucky interior with a drive before lofting a high floater off the top of the glass, he found the net on a contested mid-range jumper, and he opened up space for himself on the perimeter with a pump fake before draining a triple. All three of those bucks came in a two-minute stretch.

Flagg stepped up next, and between the 15:10 and 7:32 marks in the first half, he scored 10 of Duke’s 17 points thanks to a quartet of free throws.

Knueppel, who actually missed his first three shots from the floor, grabbed the baton from his fellow freshman phenom and took over from there. Kentucky’s Otega Oweh tried and failed to steal a pass on the perimeter, leaving Knueppel open for a 3-point look, and the Wisconsin native punished the Wildcats in kind to make it a 33-26 game.

Knueppel notched seven of Duke’s last 16 points in the opening frame, and that trio combined for 34 of Duke’s 46 in the first half.

The Blue Devils maintained some distance for the first part of the second half, leading by at least four points for the first 10 minutes, but the 3-point shooting remained a problem. Despite the clutch makes from Proctor and Knueppel, Duke made four of their 22 3-point attempts for the game.

The Wildcats took advantage. Sophomore forward Brandon Garrison, a former Oklahoma State Cowboy, scored six straight points before Kriisa buried a deep three to make it a 65-64 ballgame with 5:28 left on the clock.

Flagg tried multiple times to save the day in the final stretch. He hurtled out of nowhere to deflect a Garrison layup that would have given Kentucky the outright lead, and he earned two trips to the free-throw line on the ensuring offensive possession to keep the lead at three points. When Kentucky took the lead with 2:40 to play, the 17-year-old netted a contested jumper and drew another whistle to tip the score back in Duke’s favor, and he found a way to make a bouncing floater in the final minute that tied the game at 72 points apiece.

It all came unraveled in the final 15 seconds, however. With the score still tied and the ball in Duke’s hands, Flagg drifted into traffic to let Oweh swat it away from behind him. Now down two points with the clock ticking down, Flagg took the ball up the court and lost control near the baseline, putting his hand down out of bounds to give the ball back again.

Flagg was the only Blue Devil to score over the final 6:30, and he was the only Blue Devil to make a shot from the floor over the final 10:50. Proctor and Knueppel only tacked on four points after the break, and the Wildcats won the second half by 14 points.

The Blue Devils play at home against Wofford on Saturday, their last game before a road trip that includes Arizona and Kansas.

Cooper Flagg and Tyrese Proctor connect for alley-oop in Duke basketball game vs Army

Tyrese Proctor found star freshman Cooper Flagg on an alley-oop during Duke’s Friday night victory over the Army Black Knights.

Two Duke basketball games, two highlight-worthy dunks from star freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag].

After scoring 18 points in his first career game against Maine on Monday night, Flagg helped open up Friday’s game against the Army Black Knights with an alley-oop dunk from junior Tyrese Proctor.

Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown played a quiet role in the big play, as he often seems to. The new Blue Devil harassed Army forward AJ Allenspach in press defense up the court before forcing an errant pass. Sion James, another transfer from Tulane, grabbed the loose ball and flung it forward to Proctor, who quickly lofted it up in the air toward Flagg.

The first-year forward grabbed the ball with both hands and thumped it home through the rim, adding two points to the board in the opening minutes.

During the opening game on Monday, Flagg raced around the Black Bears’ defense and threw down a one-handed breakaway dunk to announce his presence in college basketball.

Duke basketball among the nation’s ‘good teams’ in 2024-25, Andy Katz says

College basketball analyst Andy Katz doesn’t think there’s “a great team” in 2024-25, but he thinks the Blue Devils are among the best.

The Duke Blue Devils defeated the Maine Black Bears by 34 points in their 2024-25 season opener, and college basketball analyst Andy Katz thinks there’s more to come for head coach Jon Scheyer and his team.

“I don’t think there is a great team this season,” Katz said on Monday night. “There’s a lot of good teams, and Duke is one of them.”

Five-star freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag] stole the show on opening day, combining for 40 points thanks to three Knueppel 3-pointers and an electrifying one-handed Flagg dunk. Katz wanted to zero in on the two returning starters, however: Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster.

“If they can play above their age, if you will, and are calming for the rest of this group, then they’ve got a real shot (at a national championship),” Katz concluded.

Proctor finished the first game of his junior season with 10 points after making three of his five 3-point attempts. Foster scored 11 points and tacked on three assists, tied for the third-most on the team in both categories.

Cooper Flagg ranked as the best men’s college basketball player by ESPN

Four Duke Blue Devils were included among ESPN’s preseason top 100 men’s college basketball players, including one at the very top spot.

ESPN released its preseason ranking of the top 100 men’s college basketball players on Monday, and four Duke Blue Devils made the list.

Returning starter Tyrese Proctor, who led the Blue Devils with 3.7 assists per game in 2023-24, appeared at 66th ahead of five-star freshmen Khaman Maluach (81st) and Kon Knueppel (97th), but another Duke basketball star finished much higher on the list.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], the top prospect in the freshman class, beat out North Carolina Tar Heels star RJ Davis for the No. 1 overall spot.

“There’s a world in which Flagg lives up to all the hype and produces a Carmelo Anthony-esque run, leading Duke to a national championship,” Jeff Borzello and Myron Medcalf wrote when explaining why Flagg got the top spot. “It’s within his range of outcomes. There’s nobody else in the country with that sort of ceiling.”

Flagg, who makes his regular-season debut on Monday night against Maine, averaged 15.5 points, 4.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks in his two preseason exhibitions.

Tyrese Proctor: ‘I don’t think basketball is all about scoring, I’m just out there trying to make winning plays’

Tyrese Proctor, currently ranked No. 28 on ESPN’s Top 100 and No. 30 on HoopsHype’s latest Aggregate Mock Draft, has rapidly established himself as one of the best lead guards in college basketball. The Australia native is known for his playmaking, …

Tyrese Proctor, currently ranked No. 28 on ESPN’s Top 100 and No. 30 on HoopsHype’s latest Aggregate Mock Draft, has rapidly established himself as one of the best lead guards in college basketball. The Australia native is known for his playmaking, defense, and leadership on the court.

Proctor’s sophomore campaign saw him named a team captain, only the fourth sophomore to achieve this in Duke’s history. His 2.95 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked 25th nationally, showcasing his ability to control the game while minimizing mistakes. He averaged 10.5 points per game and led his team in assists, asserting his role as the lead guard for the Blue Devils, who at times ran a three-guard lineup last year.

Recently, Proctor spoke with with HoopsHype to reflect on his basketball journey, his time in Australia’s NBA Global Academy, his thoughts on the modern game, his college basketball experience and more.

Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor name their all-time Duke basketball starting five

Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor, the two returning Duke basketball starters, named their all-time Blue Devils starting five on Wednesday.

When a basketball program has as many legends as the Duke Blue Devils, it’s incredibly fun to debate which five players would create the best starting lineup.

On Wednesday, returning starters Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor became the latest players to build their all-time Blue Devils lineup.

Proctor went first and named Kyrie Irving, JJ Redick, Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson, and Christian Laettner as his team.

Laettner, of course, helped Duke win consecutive national championships in 1991 and 1992, and he’s still the school’s all-time leading scorer in the NCAA Tournament. Irving, the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft, won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and returned to the Finals with the Dallas Mavericks this past season, where he lost to Tatum and the Boston Celtics.

Tatum, who made his third straight First Team All-NBA squad, also made program history as the first Duke men’s basketball alum to win multiple Olympic gold medals in Paris this summer.

Foster also included Irving and Williamson in his starting five, but he added Jason Williams and Orlando Magic star Paolo Banchero to his lineup. The most recent of five No. 1 NBA draft picks in school history, Banchero led the Magic to the playoffs this past season.

Foster also earned some potential points with the Duke staff when he included head coach Jon Scheyer, who won a national championship with the Blue Devils as a player in 2010, on his team.

Top-ranked freshman Cooper Flagg answered the same question on The Brotherhood Podcast this summer, and he went with the same lineup that Proctor rolled out.

Tyrese Proctor says the Blue Devils ‘hear the narrative every year’ that Duke isn’t tough

When asked about how Duke responded to questions about its toughness last season, Tyrese Proctor said the Blue Devils always hear that.

Going into last season’s Sweet 16 matchup against top-seeded Houston, analysts and fans around the country questioned whether the Duke Blue Devils could physically and emotionally handle a game against the tough Cougars team.

Forty minutes later, head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] and his team left the American Airlines Center in Dallas with a 54-51 victory and a ticket to the Elite Eight.

During junior [autotag]Tyrese Proctor[/autotag]’s Wednesday press conference at ACC Tipoff, the Australian was asked about those questions and how the Blue Devils proved them wrong against Houston. The third-year starter didn’t sound particularly phased.

“We hear the narrative every year since I’ve been here that we’re not tough,” Proctor said. “I’ve individually had conversations with guys, and as a team, we’ve had conversations just making sure we’re always together no matter what the situation is, all the expectations that come with being at Duke…I think it’s important we just stay together within our locker room.”

While the players dismissed the noise as simply that, Scheyer took plenty of time to defend his roster after that statement win over Houston.

“Try being at Duke as a freshman and sophomore and battling your ass off in the tournament and then talk to me about being tough,” Scheyer said back in March. “For me, these guys have shown every step of the way how tough they are mentally, physically.”

On Wednesday, Proctor made it clear that he appreciates playing for a coach willing to go to bat for him in big moments.

“I mean, that’s what you want, I have full trust in Coach and Coach has full trust in me,” Proctor said. “He’s going to be honest with you.”

What does Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer want to see from Tyrese Proctor in 2024-25?

During his Wednesday press conference at the ACC Tipoff, Jon Scheyer talked about what he wants to see from Tyrese Proctor this season.

Most college basketball coaches, when preseason media availabilities come around, only want to talk about how great their roster is. The practice is entirely understandable, it projects confidence while keeping strategy close to the vest, but few coaches operate with the talent that Duke basketball coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] has in Durham.

During his Wednesday press conference, the third-year Blue Devils coach talked about how impressed he’s been with returning starter [autotag]Tyrese Proctor[/autotag]’s development, but he also broke down what he wants to see from the junior in 2024-25.

“He’s shown flashes of being as good of a perimeter defender as there is in the country,” Scheyer said. “My challenge for him is to do it every game all the time.”

If fans want evidence of that defensive ceiling Scheyer mentioned, look no further than North Carolina star RJ Davis. The All-American put up 21.2 points per game and shot 42.8% last season, but in two games against the Blue Devils, he made 34.6% of his shots and averaged 13.0 points.

The junior admitted himself that he wasn’t always a diligent defender before college, but he said the team’s defensive mindset relies upon the pride of not getting beaten on the other end.

“If you don’t let the other team score, it’s going to be hard for them to win a game,” Proctor said. “It’s a personal battle every game and just not wanting my man to score the ball.”

On the other side of the ball, Proctor led the Blue Devils with 3.7 assists per game last season, and despite this being his third season with the program, he won’t turn 21 until April 1. Scheyer praised how much Proctor has matured since 2022, but he thinks there’s an extra offensive gear locked inside the Australian.

“We’ve asked him to do so much for us when his scoring and shooting can take a back seat at times,” Scheyer said. “I want him to not pass up any shots, if he’s got open threes, to take them. His shooting is a big-time weapon.”

As a sophomore in 2023-24, Proctor shot 42.3% from the floor and 35.2% from 3-point range. His consistency wavered from game to game, including a four-game stretch in early February when he made just 30.8% of his shots from the floor and 20% from behind the arc, but he followed that with a six-game stretch of 50.9% from the floor and 40.5% from 3-point range to end the regular season.

Proctor closed the year averaging 10.5 points per game, one of five Blue Devils in double-digits, but with more mouths to feed than ever as a distributor, he could facilitate one of the best offenses in the country.

He’ll get to show Scheyer some of the things he asked for when his third season kicks off on November 4 against Maine.