As the season gets ready to begin in a few more weeks, the ESPN commentator and former Duke forward spoke with the squad this week.
Jay Bilas discusses ingredients for a championship season with Blue Devils
The ESPN broadcaster and former Duke forward spoke with the team this week as the season prepares to tip-off in a few more weeks about what it will take for the Blue Devils to seriously challenge for a title
As the season slowly approaches, the Duke Men’s Basketball team is progressing through the preseason workout schedule on a daily basis. With the program’s usually high expectations and a totally revamped roster, head coach Jon Scheyer and company will be looking to chart a path to the 2025 Final Four in San Antonio.
This week Scheyer and his assistant coaches brought in ESPN commentator and former Duke player Jay Bilas to speak to the team ahead of practice to provide feedback and context on what it means to be a member of the program’s Brotherhood.
Bilas began the discussion noting that even though he was recruited more than 40 years ago and has found success in several walks of life including his sportscasting career and as a practicing attorney since 1992, people still identify him first as a Duke Basketball player.
‌”Just about every day it’s impacted my life that much and if you guys do this right and I think you will this will positively affect the rest of your life,” he told the team. “You’re really lucky that you have a basketball coach in Jon Scheyer and a staff that is as good or better than what we had back then.”
One of the main points of the discussion was for Bilas to reiterate the message of the team finding the right chemistry and togetherness in order to seriously push for a national title.
‌”What I really want to talk to you about is what’s going to make the difference between being a really good team and having a great season and being a champion, that’s going to last forever. It’s going to be the attention you pay to each other, the relationships you form and the priorities you have. Regret lasts forever, so if you go through this process and your priorities are not in order, you will regret it. You’ve made the decision to be here, and at the end of the year you may make the decision to go to the NBA or transfer, whatever you want, there’s an appropriate time to make that decision. Right now, you need to be in with both feet and willing to make whatever sacrifice the team needs to you make.”
During his first two seasons at the helm, Scheyer has led Duke to identical 27-9 records with an ACC championship in his first year and then an Elite Eight appearances last season. As Bilas noted, most programs would consider those two years a rousing success, but at Duke, very few remember years in such terms.
“This is what I call a no record program,” he explained. “Some of you who played on the team might not know this, but most people have no idea what Duke’s record was last year. They don’t know what the record was the year before either, all they want to know is did they win the championship. That’s all they care about. Other places will hang a banner for a 25-win season, but that’s not in Cameron. Those things aren’t in Cameron, but there are championship banners in there, and that’s all anybody cares about.”
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Whether or not Duke will be able to hang a championship banner, either conference or national, remains to be seen, but after back to back seasons with nine losses, Scheyer appeared to completely shift his focus with regard to roster construction. After the program lost seven players to the transfer portal and two more to the NBA Draft, the Blue Devils brought in the nation’s top ranked recruiting class headlined by the presumptive top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, forward Cooper Flagg. Flagg is joined by four more five star prospects in the form of big men Patrick Ngongba II and Khaman Maluach and wings Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans, as well as high four star shooter Darren Harris.
Balancing out the six man freshman class are three veteran transfers led by reigning Big10 Sixth Man of the Year Mason Gillis and ACC First Team All-Defensive performer, Maliq Brown. Sion James was a late addition to the transfer class and comes to Durham after being the best player on the Tulane roster for the last two seasons, and finishing last year averaging 14.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.6 steals per game in 2023-24, while swatting 23 shots and shooting 51.4% from the field and 38.1% from 3-point range.
The only two rotation players returning from last season are starting point guard Tyrese Proctor and combo guard Caleb Foster.
Duke opens the season on Friday, October 4th with the program’s annual Countdown to Craziness event.
