Jeremy Roach entering NBA draft while maintaining eligibility
Duke’s junior guard keeps open possibility of a return while testing professional waters
Jeremy Roach will enter the NBA draft process while keeping open the possibility of a return to Duke.
The junior guard announced his intentions Monday morning. He’ll have until midnight on May 31 to withdraw his name from the draft pool, should he choose to return for a fourth season with the Blue Devils.
Roach was Duke’s lone captain this season. He wasn’t the oldest Blue Devil, but he was the only one who’d been at Duke for multiple seasons, giving coach Jon Scheyer one veteran to lean on in his first year as head coach.
The 6-2, 180-pounder was second in scoring (13.6 points per game) and was the only Blue Devil to average more than 30 minutes per game (33.2).
Roach battled a toe injury initially suffered the weekend after Thanksgiving, which made him miss four games later in the season.
He finished the season playing the basketball of his Duke career. In his first 80 games at Duke — the past two seasons and into late January of this year — Roach had three 20-point games.
In Duke’s last 15 this season, he had five 20-point games. That includes back-to-back games with a career-high 23 points in the ACC championship against Virginia and in the first round of the NCAA tournament against Oral Roberts.
Roach was a constant this season for whom Scheyer could rely on, and the first-year coach often mentioned how much he and Roach had been through together. When Roach suffered a torn ACL in high school, Scheyer was the first Duke coach to reach out to him and assure him that his commitment would be honored on Duke’s end.
Roach showed a knack for stepping up in big moments last year, too.
He averaged 11.7 points in Duke’s last 12 games, turning on the jets after scoring in double figures once in the previous 16 games. Roach’s 15-point performances in back-to-back NCAA tournament games against Michigan State and Texas Tech featured a bevy of late-game buckets, helping the Blue Devils to the Final Four.
Duke’s backcourt without Roach next season looks young but talented, with Tyrese Proctor returning and incoming freshmen Caleb Foster and Jared McCain, along with rising junior Jaylen Blakes.
Should Roach return, the Blue Devils will boast one of the best backcourts in the ACC, if not the country.
Roach was the only member of Duke’s six-player Class of 2020 to stay for a third season (Mark Williams was the only other one who stayed for a second season).
Without Roach, the longest-tenured scholarship player on Duke’s roster is Blakes.
Roach’s entry into the NBA temporarily opens up a scholarship on Duke’s roster. With his and freshman forward Kyle Filipowski’s decisions pending, the other 11 scholarships are all spoken for — at least, for now. The Blue Devils are bringing in a five-player freshman class, along with returners Ryan Young, Mark Mitchell, Jaden Schutt, Christian Reeves, Proctor and Blakes.