Duke basketball is competing with UNC and Kentucky for a top transfer sharpshooter.
The Blue Devils might be competing with competitors to add a deadly shooter to their lineup.
Jon Scheyer is actively scouting for potential recruits to join the Duke basketball team next season.
Less than a week after the Blue Devils’ season came to an end against NC State in the Elite 8, the Duke coaching staff is digging further into the transfer portal.
It’s a new place for the 5-time National Champions, who didn’t sign a single player through the portal last summer despite acquiring quality like Kole Grandison and Ryan Young before to Scheyer’s first season as Duke’s head coach.
However, this offseason has already been different from the previous year and will continue to be so.
Christian Reeves, an often injured sophomore center, entered the transfer portal on Wednesday afternoon, becoming the first player to leave the Blue Devils since Scheyer was appointed head coach. It’s likely that more will follow in the following days and weeks.
Regardless, Duke has already contacted Harvard’s Justice Ajogbor and Stanford’s Kanaan Carlyle through the gateway. Both players heard from the Blue Devils while the team was still in the NCAA Tournament, but now the focus is on guys in the portal who would be excellent fits in Durham.
One of those guys may be Belmont’s Cade Tyson, who averaged 16.2 points per game this season and shot 46.5 percent from three, ranking second in the country. Tyson averaged 15.0 points per game over his two seasons at Belmont, making 44.6 percent of his three-point attempts.
As one of the best players in the country, numerous high-profile teams are attempting to sign the 6-foot-7 guard, as predicted.
North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, along with Duke, are the most recent programs to contact the Monroe, North Carolina native.
The Blue Devils have a talented freshmen class entering Durham next season, which includes a handful of decorated high school shooters, as well as players on the current roster who could return for another season, but no one has proven to be as lethal a scorer at the college level as Tyson.
This is likely the first of several queries Duke will make through the transfer portal this offseason.
