What in the name of Naismith is going on at Duke?
On Thursday, freshman forward Sean Stewart became the seventh member of the Blue Devils to announce his entrance into the transfer portal since it opened last month, signaling that the large-scale exodus of talent and depth continues apace in Durham.
For those of you scoring at home, here’s how it breaks down for Duke’s 15 rostered players from last season:
- Sophomore forward Kyle Filipowski and freshman guard Jared McCain have declared for the NBA Draft, apparently forgoing their college eligibility. Both project as first-round picks.
- Senior guard Jeremy Roach declared for the draft and the portal, keeping his options open to play his COVID year elsewhere. Baylor, Arkansas and Kentucky appear to be the top candidates to land him.
- In chronological order, sophomore center Christian Reeves, sophomore forward Mark Mitchell, junior guard Jaylen Blakes, sophomore guard Jaden Schutt, Roach, freshman forward TJ Power, and Stewart have entered the transfer portal. Mitchell, from Kansas City, Kan., has since announced his commitment to transfer to Missouri.
- Grad transfer center Ryan Young exhausted his eligibility this season, while grad transfer forward Neal Begovich and walk-on senior guard Spencer Hubbard technically would qualify for an extra COVID year. However, seeing as they played a combined 26 minutes over 18 games this year, their impact would be negligible.
- That leaves three returning players – sophomore guard Tyrese Proctor, freshman guard Caleb Foster, and walk-on junior center Stanley Borden — on the roster. Proctor and Foster started 25 and 15 games, respectively. Foster, who played in 27 games, was shut down after the Feb. 24 contest with Wake Forest because of a stress fracture in his right ankle. Proctor and Foster recently announced their intention to return and project as likely starters for Duke next season. Borden never saw any playing time this year.
The departures are notable because last season Duke was the only ACC school that did not lose a player to the transfer portal. The seven departures top the ACC this year and matches the total that North Carolina experienced last season, which at the time was considered a mass casualty event stripping the Tar Heels of much of their depth. UNC coach Hubert Davis recovered just fine, however, bringing in forward Harrison Ingram of Stanford and wing guard Cormac Ryan of Notre Dame in a four-man transfer class. The result was an ACC regular-season championship and a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed.
But don’t feel too badly for second-year Duke head coach Jon Scheyer. He has put together his second consecutive nationally No. 1-ranked recruiting class, although apparently the younger players on his bench didn’t take well to being recruited over for the upcoming campaign. Scheyer’s six-player recruiting class includes three five-star players in No. 1 recruit Cooper Flagg, top-10 small forward Isaiah Evans, top-20 center Patrick Ngongba, and most recently Khaman Maluach, a 7-foot-2 center from Sudan who like Flagg also projects as a likely one-and-done NBA lottery pick.
Those newcomers would leave Scheyer with at least five scholarships to fill, and Duke reportedly has targeted Syracuse forward Maliq Brown, Stanford forward Brandon Angel, and Purdue guard Mason Gillis, among others.
This week has seen a flurry of activity around the ACC in the transfer portal. Locally, not only did four Blue Devils enter the portal, but NC State got its second commitment from a former ACC player. Dontrez Styles, a 6-7 forward from Kinston, committed to the Wolfpack after leaving Georgetown. That was his second foray into the portal, having departed UNC a year ago.
NC State had already gotten a commitment from 6-10 Louisville junior Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and might bag another Cardinal in 6-5 forward Mike James as coach Kevin Keatts continues to work the portal like a virtuoso. The top seven players in Keatts’ rotation this season all came to Raleigh via the transfer portal, and he melded them into a Final Four team by March.
The busiest ACC teams in terms of commitments have been Louisville with six incoming players and Virginia Tech with four.
Louisville saw a whopping 12 players rush for the portal after coach Kenny Payne was fired, so a big part of the activity there was out of necessity. So far, new coach Pat Kelsey has brought in two of his College of Charleston players, and BYU center Aly Khalifa announced Thursday that he also would be joining the Cardinals. Two other notable additions previously were James Madison forward Terrence Edwards Jr. and Tennessee guard Freddie Dilione, who’s from Raleigh.
Virginia Tech, which lost center Lynn Kidd to Miami via the portal among six departures, has gone after scorers and picked up two from the Lone Star State in guard Jordan Ivy-Curry of UT-San Antonio and wing forward Davon Barnes of Sam Houston State. Coincidentally, two Hokies who exited in the portal, wing forward Tyler Nickel – the former UNC freshman – and wing guard MJ Rice, will continue to be teammates at Vanderbilt, where former JMU coach Mark Byington takes over.
There were two other transfers within the ACC this week. Former Florida State forward Cameron Corhen will head to Pittsburgh, while Clemson guard Josh Beadle has committed to Boston College.
The biggest question marks remaining around the ACC, other than who might join the conference ranks, are the destinations for some high-profile players. Virginia Tech point guard Sean Pedulla has been linked with his home-state Oklahoma, although that is not final yet. And Wake Forest point guard Kevin (Boopie) Miller has yet to announce where he’s going.
With Mitchell off the board, Duke ex-pats Roach and Power, a former five-star recruit, will certainly draw a lot of attention as well.
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