Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer gets key commitment from returning point guard
The first Duke player to announce his plans to stay with the Blue Devils this offseason happens to be the one with the ball in his hands most of time.
That elevates the importance of point guard Tyrese Proctor’s decision to play for Duke as a sophomore during the 2023-24 season.
“Unfinished business,” Proctor posted on Twitter on Monday. “Let’s run it back.”
The 6-5 Proctor arrived at Duke last August from Australia, a year earlier than planned. Originally a commit for the class of 2023, Proctor reclassified to join the Blue Devils and help them go 27-9 in Jon Scheyer’s first season as head coach following Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement.
Playing all 36 Duke games this season, starting 34 times, Proctor established himself as Duke’s primary ball handler and became a key perimeter scorer while starting the team’s final 21 games.
For the season, he averaged 9.4 points and 3.3 assists per game while hitting 38.1% of his shots from the field. But he showed flashes of more, like when he made 5 of 8 shots, including 3 of 5 3-pointers, to score 15 points with five assists in Duke’s 85-78 win over Miami in the ACC tournament semifinals. That was one game after he hit 4 of 6 shots, including 3 of 5 3-pointers, when Duke blasted Pittsburgh, 96-69, in the tournament quarterfinals.
During Duke’s run to the ACC tournament title, Proctor had 18 assists against five turnovers. That included 33 minutes of turnover-free play against Virginia in Duke’s 59-49 championship game win.
On the way to being named to the all-ACC freshman team, Proctor also developed into a lockdown defender.
His return adds experience to a talented backcourt that will also include incoming freshmen guards Caleb Foster and Jared McCain. Both five-star recruits should be able to thrive playing off the ball in scoring positions with Proctor taking care of point guard duties.
Jeremy Roach, the team’s captain and starting guard as a junior this season, has yet to make his future plans public. He averaged 13.6 points with 3.1 assists per game while hitting 42.6% of his shots.
While Proctor is the first of Duke’s freshmen to announce his plans for next season, four of his classmates also face decisions about pro basketball. Dereck Lively, Kyle Filipowski and Dariq Whitehead are all projected to be selected at some point in the NBA Draft’s first round.
Mark Mitchell, a 6-8 forward who started every game until a knee injury caused him to miss Duke’s 65-52 second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Tennessee on March 18, is likely to return, though he’s not made his official announcement.
Mitchell would give Duke an inside-outside threat to go with incoming 6-8 freshmen forwards Mackenzie Mgbako, Sean Stewart and TJ Power. Duke graduate student forward Ryan Young, who played this season after transferring from Northwestern, also plans to play his final season with the Blue Devils next season.
This story was originally published March 27, 2023 at 10:42 AM.