Kyle Filipowski returning to Duke

The final domino relating to Duke players and NBA decisions has fallen.

Freshman forward Kyle Filipowski announced Tuesday morning that he’s returning to Duke without entering the NBA draft process.

Filipowski’s return means the Blue Devils will return three core sophomores who started the majority of games this past season, with Filipowski being the only player on the roster to start every game. Fellow sophomores Tyrese Proctor and Mark Mitchell announced their returns a couple of weeks ago.

Those three, plus a possible return of Jeremy Roach, will make Duke a top-team entering next season.

While Filipowski lands in the first round of some mock drafts, the 7-footer is a complicated study when it comes to projecting to the next level. He’ll return to Duke with a specific set of goals to improve his stock for next year’s draft.

Duke and Filipowski benefitted by playing him at the 4-position, creating mismatches against smaller forwards. Filipowski rarely played the 5-position, in large part because of fellow freshman Dereck Lively II’s versatility and game-changing ability on the defensive end of the floor.

The Westtown, N.Y. native led the Blue Devils in scoring (15.1 points per game) and rebounding (8.9). Filipowski had 16 double-doubles, including stat-stuffing performances against NCAA tournament teams in Kansas (17 points, 14 rebounds), Pittsburgh (28 and 15), Miami (17 and 14) and Virginia (20 and 10).

That last one was in the ACC championship game, a particularly meaningful game to Filipowski after he was held scoreless in the teams’ regular-season meeting and was deprived of a chance to win the game at the free-throw line because of an officiating error.

Filipowski became Duke’s 14th winner of the ACC’s rookie of the year award, and the ninth in the last 12 seasons. He was named the ACC tournament Most Outstanding Player after averaging 19.7 points per game and making 24 of 36 shots in three games.

His return to Duke means he’ll be the league’s first rookie of the year to play a sophomore season since Boston College guard Olivier Hanlan — who won the award in 2013 and played two more seasons for the Eagles.

Of the ACC’s last nine rookies of the year, eight were drafted in the top 10. Duke’s Vernon Carey Jr. is the exception, falling to the second round in the 2020 draft. Every other Blue Devil to win ACC rookie of the year in the last decade has been a top-three pick — Paolo Banchero and Zion Williamson went No. 1, Marvin Bagley III, Brandon Ingram and Jabari Parker all went No. 2, and Jahlil Okafor was No. 3.

It’s worth noting that Filipowski, unlike Dariq Whitehead and Lively, didn’t come to Duke as a projected one-and-done player or first-round pick. This year’s draft class is projected as a strong and deep class, even beyond the top three of Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller.

The 2024 draft class — at least, at this stage — isn’t projected to be nearly as strong at the top or deep as this year’s batch.