Duke basketball adds Northwestern Wildcats center Ryan Young via transfer portal
For the third season in a row, Duke dipped into the NCAA transfer portal to add a veteran big man.
Ryan Young, a 6-10, 240-pound center who played at Northwestern the last three seasons, committed to joining Duke this summer to play on coach Jon Scheyer’s first team.
He announced his commitment Saturday, posting an official statement on his social media accounts.
Young committed to play for Duke after visiting campus on Thursday. He averaged 9.0 points and 4.2 rebounds per game while playing in all 31 games for the Wildcats last season. After starting all 31 games as a freshman in the 2019-20 season, Young was mostly a reserve the last two seasons for coach Chris Collins’ Wildcats.
Young follows Patrick Tapé and Theo John as transfers joining the Blue Devils over the last two seasons. Injuries kept Tapé from contributing much during the 2020-21 season when Duke went 13-11 and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1995. He played at San Francisco last season.
But the 6-9 John, who came to Duke from Marquette, played in 38 games for the Blue Devils last season when they went 32-7, won the ACC regular-season championship and made the Final Four. He provided depth behind 7-1 sophomore center Mark Williams, the ACC defensive player of the year who has declared for the NBA draft.
The hope is Young can provide depth similar to what John produced last season.
Duke has no returning big men coming back for next season, when Scheyer will be the team’s head coach following Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement.
The Blue Devils recruiting class, rated No. 1 in the nation, does include a pair of five-star centers in 7-1 Dereck Lively and 6-11 Kyle Filipowski. Another five-star forward, 6-8 Mark Mitchell, will also be in the mix for playing time. Incoming freshman Christian Reeves, a 7-1 center, is a three-star recruit who will likely redshirt.
Young, though, brings three seasons of experience playing in the Big Ten.
He is the second transfer Duke has landed for next season’s team. Kale Catchings, a 6-6 forward who played at Harvard the last four seasons, announced he was coming to Duke to use his final season of eligibility.
This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 4:14 PM.