Duke basketball’s Jeremy Roach not on NBA Draft Combine list. Will he return to Blue Devils?
The NBA announced the 78 players invited to this month’s draft combine, and while two Duke Blue Devils are included, it’s the one who isn’t that could impact next season’s team.
Jeremy Roach, who declared for the draft but retained the option to return to school, did not receive an invite to either the NBA Draft Combine or the G League Combine.
His Duke teammates last season, 7-1 center Dereck Lively and 6-7 forward Dariq Whitehead, are on the list for the NBA Draft Combine, which will be held in Chicago May 15-21.
A 6-2 junior guard, Roach captained Duke’s ACC championship team last season, when he averaged 13.6 points with 3.1 assists.
Lively and Whitehead, who are projected as first-round picks in the June 22 draft, entered their names in the draft and began working with agents since they had no intention of returning to college basketball.
Roach, though, can withdraw from the draft pool by May 31 and be eligible to play for Duke as a senior next season.
His return would give Duke coach Jon Scheyer a deep, experienced and talented set of guards for his second season as the Blue Devils head coach.
Point guard Tyrese Proctor, who started with Roach on the 27-9 Duke team last season, is returning for his sophomore season. Proctor averaged 9.4 points and 3.3 assists last season.
Duke has two incoming freshmen guards who are five-star recruits in 6-5 Caleb Foster and 6-2 Jared McCain. In addition, 3-point shooter Jaden Schutt is back for his sophomore season after playing in a limited role as a freshman.
If Roach does return, Duke would have four starters back from last season since 7-1 forward Kyle Filipowski and 6-8 forward Mark Mitchell have already announced they will be back for their sophomore seasons. That amount of experience has Duke projected as a top-five team nationally.
Lively and Whitehead, who left Duke following their freshman seasons, are two of the eight ACC players who received combine invites.
N.C. State guard Terquavion Smith is going to the combine for the second year in a row. Last May, Smith withdrew from the draft before averaging 17.9 points per game while leading the Wolfpack to the NCAA Tournament as a sophomore.
Other ACC players going to the combine are Virginia’s Reece Beekman, Wake Forest’s Bobi Klintman, Syracuse’s Judah Mintz and Jordan Miller and Isaiah Wong of Miami.