Kyle Filipowski explains his jersey number choice at Duke

In basketball, you can be defined by your jersey number just as well as your play on the court, and nowhere in college basketball is that more prevalent than Duke.

Blue Devils star Kyle Filipowski recognizes that. He’s rocking No. 30, but there’s a fascinating reason as to why.

During an appearance on The Brotherhood Podcast, Filipowski explained that the connection he feels with Duke coach Jon Scheyer is the reason he rocks the number.

“I always wanted to wear a number that had some sort of meaning to me, and I couldn’t — I didn’t really know what that was,” started the young Duke star. “But I mean once I, you know once I committed here, and just kept connecting with Coach Scheyer, you know what I think, I mean there were already plenty of numbers retired from all the greats that came through, so the options were already limited, so I guess I had to you know, settle with wearing Scheyer’s number.”

While Kyle Filipowski may share his number with his coach, he can make it his own by continuing his impressive play in 2023-2024, with all eyes on him leading the legendary program.

Kyle Filipowski gives his biggest takeaways from freshman year at Duke

Continuing, Duke star Kyle Filipowski is getting ready to return for his sophomore year in college. He expects to be a much improved played by the time the season rolls around.

As Filipowski explained on The Brotherhood Podcast, he’s grown both as a player and as a person already while at Duke.

“The biggest thing I probably took away for myself was just how I grew individually as like as a person and a player,” Kyle Filipowski said. “Just kind of stepping into the shoes that have been left for me to fill.”

It’s difficult for a freshman to succeed at a place like Duke. Expectations are massive, having decades of college basketball greats setting the standard before Filipowski got there. On top of that, this was head coach Jon Scheyer’s first season at Duke, adding to the challenges.

“I feel like I did a decent job of that and kind of grew into them pretty well.”

Kyle Filipowski added that he also made strides from his time in high school to his first year at Duke, explaining that he needed to be more dedicated to the team, turning basketball into his lifestyle.

In the end, Duke went 14-6 in ACC play before going on a run to win the ACC Tournament. In the process, they beat talented teams like Virginia and Miami. However, the Blue Devils were quickly eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, losing in the second round to Tennessee.

On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.