What a difference a year makes.
This time last year, give or take a few days, new Duke men’s basketball coach Jon Scheyer welcomed back Jeremy Roach and Jaylen Blakes and not much else. Two returnees, seven freshmen, three recruited transfers for his first gig as head coach of Duke’s men’s basketball team.
And don’t forget a new assistant coach and a director of player personnel promoted to assistant coach and a newly-created general manager position and a special assistant to the head coach.
I imagine it was like one of those awkward social get-togethers after a professional conference, the one where everyone has a name tag, “Hi, my name is Jacob” or “My name is Christian.”
Okay, maybe not that bad. But still lots of getting to know you, getting to like you going on.
Fast forward to July 2023 and second-year coach Jon Scheyer, a little battle-scarred and a little battle-hardened and yes, a little wiser, welcomes back a robust eight returnees, six of whom started at least one game last season. And four eager freshmen. And not a single recruited transfer in or a single transfer out, virtually unheard of in these days.
Scheyer and four of his players--Kyle Filipowski, Ryan Young, Jeremy Roach and Mark Mitchell met with the media Wednesday and touched on a wide variety of topics.
First and foremost, how does that injury report look?
Well, Filipowski, Roach, Mitchell and Christian Reeves are all dealing with some level of rehab and recovery. All are ambulatory, all are on the court and all seemed to be moving reasonably well in the 20 minutes of practice the media was allowed to see, if we define shooting drills as practice.
None of the four has been cleared for full contact. But there don’t seem to be any red flags either.
Filipowski said he was dealing with hip issues from before he came to Duke, kept putting it off because of the six-month recovery timeline but now was time to get it fixed, once and for all.
“I’m now just starting to get on the court the last two weeks, start the process of running again. It’s been great for me. I feel so much better than I did last year. The strength is so much better that it’s tough to comprehend. It’s been going really good. My schedule is I’m going to be back by the time the season comes around. We’re making really good progress and I’m right on track. It’s great to be feeling the way I’m feeling. It’s a great confidence boost.”
Contact expected to start end of August or early September. Scheyer added that Filipowski’s rehab is ahead of schedule and the new Flip is going to be an upgrade.
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