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The weekend in college hoops
Duke preps for an entirely new starting five, Florida loses a likely starter to the portal, and Tennessee lands its highest-ever rated recruit. Plus: All the portal commits from the weekend -- Auburn and K-State got great fits -- and much more.
Mike Miller
April 21, 2025
Good morning! Hope you enjoyed Easter weekend, which was relatively quiet in terms of transfer portal activity. We’ll see if that holds with the portal closing tomorrow.
Let's get to the weekend’s news.
1. Duke needs new starting 5 with Proctor going pro
Caleb Foster’s back in Durham next season. How the rest of the roster fills out will be one of the spring/summer’s fascinating storylines — because a three-year Duke starter is off to the NBA.
League next. Duke forever.
Thank you @TyreseProctor‼️💙💙😈
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB)
11:57 PM • Apr 18, 2025
Proctor, a 6-6 junior who started 97 games over the past three seasons, averaged 12.4 ppg, 2.2 apg and shot 40.5% from deep this season. He was Duke’s third-leading scorer and the one with the most experience within the program.
He’s not just testing the NBA Draft process, either. He’s set on going pro.
That leaves Foster (a rising junior), Maliq Brown (a rising senior) and Patrick Ngongba (a rising sophomore) as the the players most likely to be in Durham next season. Freshman Isaiah Evans hasn’t announced what he’s doing yet. Sion James is out of eligibility. And while Cooper Flagg and Khaman Maluach haven’t announced their plans yet, they’re both projected NBA lottery picks.
That leaves Duke with the least roster continuity — and no returning starters — it’s had since Jon Scheyer’s first season when Jeremy Roach was the only returning player with significant experience. (Jaylen Blakes also was on that roster, but he didn’t play much as a freshman.)
In some ways, that could be good. It’ll clear the deck for the Boozer twins to be the focal point, with some support from incoming freshman Nik Khamenia. But in a sport where continuity was perhaps the most valuable component of the best teams, it’ll be an interesting aspect to monitor for Duke.
In other NBA Draft news:
Baylor freshman V.J. Edgecombe officially declared for the NBA Draft. This was a formality as he’s considered to be a top 10 pick. The Big 12 Freshman of the Year averaged 15 ppg, 5.6 rpg and 3.2 apg.
UConn junior Alex Karaban doesn’t have a timeline, but is expected to make an NBA Draft decision “relatively soon.”
2. That Gators backcourt isn’t set yet + more portal entrants
Two weeks ago, Denzel Aberdeen won a national title with Florida. And given he was one of the few guards with eligibility, he was slated for a starting role next season.
So, naturally, he hit the portal.
