Tyrese Proctor will return to Duke for sophomore season

Good news on the Duke Basketball front. In the wake of the Blue Devils’ second round loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament, players have begun to make decisions on their futures, with the first being freshman point guard Tyrese Proctor. On Monday, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reported that Proctor said he would return to Duke for a sophomore season.

Givony broke the news in a story for ESPN, writing:

“Duke point guard Tyrese Proctor — a potential 2024 NBA draft lottery pick — will return to the Blue Devils for his sophomore season, he told ESPN on Monday morning.”

According to Givony’s story, Proctor gave the following statement to ESPN:

“This is the best decision for my career, both present and future. Coach (Jon) Scheyer and I share the same vision; we have unfinished business. We have the best staff in the country, and they will push me each and every day.”

So, Proctor is back in blue for 2023-24. A nice start to Scheyer’s second team at the helm. With a point guard like Proctor returning for year two, plus another stellar recruiting class, the Blue Devils should expect to be right back in the mix next season.

Proctor is the first real domino to fall as far as decisions on the future from players off the 2023 team. You’d have to assume freshman big man Kyle Filipowski heads out after a tremendous rookie year. While Dariq Whitehead and Derek Lively both underwhelmed on the court and also suffered injury setbacks, each guy is likely to sill get picked in the first round because of the pedigree they had coming into Duke.

But who knows. The pair of former top-five recruits both looked stronger as the season wore on and they were able to stay healthy, so maybe one or both can return and make a huge leap as a sophomore. Though, as Blue Devil fans have learned with top recruits, don’t hold your breath waiting for one to surprise you and return when they came in with such lofty projections.

Duke would certainly love to get a few of these guys back to join another stacked recruiting class. Scheyer has at least five new freshman faces coming in and will likely add other newcomers from the transfer portal. A full reload going down once again in Durham this offseason. But at least Tyrese Proctor will be a holdover.