Dariq Whitehead enters NBA draft
Duke freshman had injury-riddled freshman season that left Blue Devils from ever seeing him at his best
Dariq Whitehead’s career at Duke will have been only one season, as was expected entering it.
Whitehead announced Wednesday morning that he’s entering the NBA draft.
“I’m really looking forward to this next step in my basketball career and I’m truly blessed to have this opportunity,” said Whitehead via news release. “I’ve dreamed of these moments for so long. I can’t wait to get after it and continue preparing for the NBA Draft.
“I want to thank Duke University from my professors to my coaches and my teammates -- I appreciate your help with everything this year.”
Whitehead leaves Duke after a stop-and-go season in which he was limited by a pair of foot injuries.
In late August, Whitehead suffered a fracture in his right foot that required surgery. That kept him out of commission for most of the preseason — roughly two months — and meant he missed Duke’s first three games.
“It’s been a privilege to coach Dariq this year,” said head coach Jon Scheyer via news release. “He is a guy who, you ask anybody in our program, any time you see Dariq, he’s got a big smile – just a joy to be around. And for him, he’s battled an incredible amount of adversity with the injuries that have come his way. I’m so proud of how he stuck with it and been a true team guy.”
Whitehead played less than 18 minutes in each of his first seven games when he returned, and didn’t score in double figures until his ninth game.
The No. 1 overall recruit in the class looked like he hit his stride early in conference play, when he averaged 15.3 points and made 10 3-pointers in a three-game stretch. But a second injury — this one a strain in his left leg — at Virginia Tech meant another four missed games.
The 6-7, 220-pounder wound up with averages of 8.3 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. His 42.4% clip on 3-pointers (42 of 99) was the best percentage on the team, notable also because long-range shooting was thought to be one of the weaker parts of his game when he was at Montverde Academy.
With Whitehead off to the NBA, as was the plan when he joined the Blue Devils, there’s a feeling that Duke never saw the full encapsulation of what he could be.
It’s the way Whitehead feels, too.
“I definitely feel like I haven’t been able to show what I’m fully capable of this year due to the injuries and with me being limited to what I could do off the bench,” Whitehead said while Duke was in Orlando, Fla., for the NCAA tournament. “I’ve just been making sure the main thing, I put the team first this year.
“A lot of things have been just making sure I come out confident and I feel like that Dariq Whitehead that saw in high school definitely will be back, it’s just a matter of when.”
The physical element of recovering was only part of the battle; the other part was a player who’d never had a significant injury having to mentally overcome the feeling that he was one wrong landing or step away from reinjuring himself.
“I was scared to jump in the beginning, when it first happened,” Whitehead said of the mental hurdle. “Scared to do certain movements out of, you know, just it coming out of place or whatever, the screw coming out of place.”