Trevor Keels will keep name in NBA draft, won’t return for Duke basketball next season
Down to the final deadline day, Duke guard Trevor Keels decided he’d done enough in college basketball and the time had arrived to turn professional.
Keels decided Wednesday he is forgoing his final three seasons of eligibility and will keep his name in the NBA draft pool, Duke sources said.
Other media outlets, including ESPN, also reported Keels is leaving college basketball.
A 6-4 guard, Keels is projected to be selected late in the first round or in the second round of the June 23 NBA draft. He joins four other former Duke teammates — 6-10 forward Paolo Banchero, 6-6 forward A.J. Griffin, 7-2 center Mark Williams and 6-6 forward Wendell Moore — in the draft. Those four are all expected to be first-round picks.
Keels’ departure leaves Duke with one player returning from the top eight players that helped last year’s team win the ACC regular-season championship and reach the Final Four. Jeremy Roach, who started all five of Duke’s NCAA tournament games, announced in April he was returning for his junior season.
Duke is bolstering its perimeter with 6-6 small forward Dariq Whitehead and 6-5 guard Jaden Schutt arriving as part of the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class.
The Blue Devils also recruited A.J. Green, a 6-4 guard from Northern Iowa, in the transfer portal. Green, a two-time Missouri Valley Conference player of the year, narrowed his college decisions to Duke or Iowa State, where his father is an assistant coach.
But Green announced Wednesday he was ending his college basketball career and staying in the NBA Draft to pursue a professional career.
Duke is also pursuing 6-3 guard Courtney Ramey, who played at Texas the last four seasons. Ramey is in the NCAA transfer portal seeking to use his final season of college eligibility at a new school. He averaged 9.4 points for the Longhorns last season while starting 32 games and playing in all 34.
Last season with the Blue Devils, Keels played in 36 games with 26 starts. Selected to the ACC’s all-freshman team, he averaged 11.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game while making 41.9% of his shots, including 31.9% of his 3-pointers.
During the NCAA tournament, Keels was a top reserve in all five of Duke’s games on its run to the Final Four. His best games in March were a 12-point output in an 85-76 second-round win over Michigan State and 19 points when UNC beat Duke, 81-77, at the Final Four.
Invited to the NBA draft scouting combine in Chicago in May, Keels opted not to participate in 5-on-5 scrimmages or shooting drills. He did go through strength and agility testing, and his results were not strong compared to other players who participated.
Keels’ maximum vertical leap of 31 inches, for example, was better than only six other participants, and well behind Tennessee 6-foot freshman guard Kennedy Chandler’s top leap of 41.5 inches.
In the shuttle run, a drill designed to show speed and change of direction, Keels’ time was 3.32 seconds. Australian point guard Dyson Daniels turned in the top time at 2.81 seconds. Only two players, Gonzaga 6-7 forward Julian Strawther and Purdue 6-10 center Trevion Williams, had slower times than Keels.
His 3/4 court sprint time of 3.27 seconds tied him for 28th place, well behind Michigan State guard Max Christie’s top time of 3.07 seconds.