Tyrese Proctor was the first domino to fall last offseason.

This year, he’s the first to fall into line for next season.

Duke’s point guard will return for his junior season, according to multiple reports (Adam Zagoria was first). Last year, Proctor’s announcement came in the first of three decisions to not test the NBA draft and return for his sophomore season.

Proctor went from gradual progress in his freshman season to an inconsistent sophomore year.

On the whole, Proctor was better in his second season at Duke. His scoring average went from 9.4 to 10.5 points, assists from 3.3 to 3.7, his turnover rate dropped from 17.6% to 13.5% (KenPom), and he went from making 32% of his 3s to 35.2%.

These just weren’t the anticipated jumps for a prospect who was landing in the lottery section of preseason mock drafts.

Part of his inconsistency was because of injuries. He suffered a sprained ankle early in Duke’s loss at Georgia Tech in early December and missed the next three games. He had a concussion against Wake Forest and missed Duke’s win at Florida State in mid-February.

Defensively, Proctor emerged as Duke’s best on-ball defender over the course of his freshman season and held that title for all of this past season.

Proctor was originally in the Class of 2023, but reclassified to come to Duke a year early after Trevor Keels decided to remain in the 2022 NBA draft.

He turned 20 years old on the day after Duke lost to N.C. State in the NCAA tournament.

It’s the first announced return for a team that has had two transfer portal entries already, both from the sophomore class. Mark Mitchell and Christian Reeves have both entered the portal in the last week.