From ‘overwhelmed’ to overdrive: Kyle Filipowski’s growth mirrors Duke basketball’s surge
Like his coach who took over a winning program from a legend, Kyle Filipowski bears the weight of expectations.
He’s 7 feet tall and 230 pounds. His skills are such that he can shoot 3-pointers and bang inside for rebounds and dunks. He’s able to defend smaller players on the perimeter and block shots against bigger players.
He has it all, right?
Playing his way to 15 points and 9.2 rebounds a game for Duke this season is what he should do with all that talent.
It may look easy. But it hasn’t been.
“I think it’s definitely been more than I expected,” Filipowski told the News & Observer in an exclusive interview. “I’ve definitely battled a lot of obstacles this year on and off the court. I think I’ve definitely seen how much I’ve grown as a person and as a teammate, and found who I am, by being here, for the better.”
In that way, Filipowski mirrors the Blue Devils as a whole. It’s been far from an easy path in Jon Scheyer’s first season as Duke’s coach following Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement.
Yet here the Blue Devils (23-8) are, having won six consecutive games and nine of their past 11 entering Thursday’s ACC tournament quarterfinals.
Filipowski put an exclamation point on his solid regular season with 22 points and 13 rebounds in Duke’s 62-57 win at rival North Carolina last Saturday night.
“You can question different things about any of our guys,” Scheyer said. “With Kyle, you can never question his competitiveness or his toughness. He’s as tough as it gets. And he wants to win as badly as anybody.”
A look back to last summer shows how much work, both physically and mentally, it took for Filipowski to get to where such a performance in a tense situation was possible.
Filipowski: ‘I was just overwhelmed’
The Blue Devils gather annually on campus in late June to begin classes in Duke’s second summer session. The players go through summer workouts and practices that are allowed under NCAA offseason guidelines.
During one of those workouts, Filipowski said, he wasn’t feeling his best physically. Lacking in effort, he heard about it from his coaches and some teammates because now, at Duke, in the ACC, the competition and expectations are such that there’s no time for slacking off.
Just a few months after taking over as Duke’s new head coach, Scheyer didn’t feel good about what he saw.
“I wasn’t putting in my full effort,” Filipowski said. “And he got on me about it.”
Filipowski took off, leaving the drill — and the work — behind.
“I was just overwhelmed,” Filipowski said. “I actually left because I just knew I had to blow off some steam.”
Neither Scheyer nor his coaching staff nor the Blue Devils players gave up on the freshman. When Filipowski returned, he found support. He’s learned the work outside of games is the foundation for success when the shots count for real.
As the Blue Devils enter tournament season and each game is magnified, when Filipowski starts a game poorly — like his two early turnovers at UNC — he stays locked in and, eventually, turns in a strong performance.
“I think it’s just a testament to him trusting his work,” Duke assistant coach Amile Jefferson said last Saturday night after the win at UNC. “I think that’s a part of his makeup, it’s in his DNA. I can’t take credit for that. Working with him, he has a ton of confidence. So even when he’s missing early, just staying true to who he is, knowing what he can do and constantly believing in himself.”
Filipowski appreciates how far he’s come from that tough day when he was overwhelmed.
“From the summer to where I’m at now,” Filipowski said, “the strides I’ve made, that’s all because of my coaches and my teammates. If they hadn’t been on me since day one, I wouldn’t be where I am now. Just with the confidence they’ve had in me for always believing in me.”
College basketball in his blood
Filipowski has been around college basketball players his whole life.
His mother, Becky, played at Long Beach State from 1982-84. His father, Dave, played at Slippery Rock from 1979-81. His uncle, Randall Hagerdon, played at Boston College from 1989-91, and his aunt, Beverly Hagerdon, played at Dartmouth from 1984-88.
Filipowski’s twin brother, Matthew, is a freshman playing at Harvard.
Those connections didn’t make his family members experts with all the answers when Kyle was going through what he called a “roller coaster” year at Duke. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
“They’ve given their support,” Filipowski said. “But also, they are letting me work things out on my own. Because I’m in college and this is my life, I’ve got to be responsible, take care of things for myself, things like that. So I’ve really gotten the opportunity to really thrive for myself in terms of growing as a person and fighting through days where I don’t want to fight things like that. They’ve kind of given me that opportunity to become more of a man this year.”
Being apart from his twin brother has been a big adjustment. They’ve always been at the same school, played basketball on the same teams, and even had shared friend groups.
“Believe it or not, it’s actually gotten us a little closer,” Kyle said. “Us having our own time to shine in our own life has been really good for us. It lets us express ourselves as our own people.”
NBA or stay? A decision looms
Filipowski’s strong season, which earned him the ACC’s Freshman of the Year award and second-team all-conference honors, means he’ll have to decide — sooner than later, now — if he wants to stay at Duke for another season or head to the NBA.
NBA Draft projections have him as a late first-round pick this summer if he enters the draft. He’s made enough 3-pointers to help Duke but his percentage — at just 28% — gives talent evaluators pause. Still, there’s enough good in his game that a team could gamble on a bright future.
Like any college basketball player, Filipowski can’t help but think about whether he wants to make that move or stay at Duke.
“I’ve gone back and forth on each decision, what it looks like for me,” Filipowski said. “But I still want to see how the rest of this year plays out, obviously, for the team and myself. Then I think I’ll have a better idea once the season is officially over of where I’m at.”
The school, his coaches and his teammates will factor into his thinking. The way the team responded to earlier ACC losses, the way the team turned what could have been a very disappointing season around, and the way he’s pushed through his rough patches to lead all freshmen nationally in double-doubles with 14 — all of that will matter.
“I think I’ve definitely seen how much I’ve grown as a person and as a teammate, and found who I am by being here,” Filipowski said. “I think that’s exactly what I wanted when I was deciding where to pick a school. I got that here. There have been so many times this year where I’ve just said to myself, `Man, I’m so happy I picked Duke’. I’m so happy I made this choice. This was the right choice for me.”
On the verge of another potential ACC and NCAA tournament run, Duke’s coaches, players and fan base are pretty happy he did, too.
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 12:00 PM.