Jeremy Roach declares for NBA draft while entering transfer portal

Wherever Jeremy Roach plays basketball next season, it won’t be as a fifth season at Duke.

Roach declared for the NBA draft while also entering the transfer portal on Tuesday night. He has spent the past four seasons at Duke, being a captain for the last two of them. He has an extra season of eligibility because his freshman season was during the 2020-21 season, which doesn't count toward players' eligibility.

Here was his full announcement on Instagram:

Roach was the bridge between Mike Krzyzewski and Jon Scheyer.

The Leesburg, Va., native was recruited by Scheyer when he was Duke’s associate head coach and played in Krzyzewski’s final season, hitting several key shots in the Blue Devils’ run to the Final Four in 2022.

Roach was Duke’s only captain in Scheyer’s first season, one in which he was the only returning rotation player. He scored what still stands as a career-high 23 points in the ACC tournament championship win over Virginia, a 59-49 conquest.

And then Roach averaged a career-best 14.0 points per game this past season, with shooting percentages that climbed into making him one of the most-efficient scorers in the ACC. He was a 32.8% 3-point shooter across his first three seasons and made 54 of 126 3s (42.9%) this season. Roach also made 84.4% of his free throws and had a 2.3 assist-to-turnover ratio this season.

In Duke’s second game of the season, he scored his 1,000th career point. His 1,469 career points rank 32nd in program history.

This year’s draft class is not thought to be deep. Roach would seem to be a second-round prospect or a priority free agent.

The key dates moving forward are:

- May 12-19; NBA Draft Combine (in Chicago).

- May 29; NCAA’s deadline to withdraw from the draft and retain eligibility.

- June 16; NBA’s deadline to withdraw from the draft (to pursue other pro opportunities and reenter the draft process in a later year).

- June 26-27; NBA Draft.