With mass turnover, Jeremy Roach will be Duke's key leader in 2022-23
Jeremy Roach will look to follow in the footsteps of Duke standouts of the past, and takeover leadership duties as a junior.
Earlier this week, Joey Baker announced his decision to enter his name into the NCAA transfer portal and play his final year of eligibility somewhere other than Duke.
Baker, who graduated from Duke earlier this month, was expected to play an important leadership role for the Blue Devils during Jon Scheyer’s first year as head coach. Though Baker’s career never truly reached expectations on the floor, his presence as a leader off the court was valued by his teammates.
With the departure of Wendell Moore Jr., Baker, along with rising junior Jeremy Roach, was expected to take on more leadership responsibilities this upcoming season. With his departure, Roach is the lone upperclassman to return to the roster this season.
Scheyer did add Kale Catchings from Harvard and Ryan Young from Northwestern to the roster, both of whom are graduate transfers and can help from a leadership standpoint.
The Blue Devils also remain in the mix for Northern Iowa standout AJ Green, who would not only add more NBA level talent to the lineup, but also someone Duke’s abundance of young players could turn to for guidance.
That said, Roach will be expected to be the go-to on this Duke roster when it comes to that role.
“Getting a guy like Jeremy Roach back is really important,” Scheyer said. “He’s going to be a leader for us [with] what he did in the NCAA Tournament.”
Roach was an integral part to Duke’s run to the Final Four, particularly in the second round against Michigan State and the Sweet 16 against Texas Tech.
He also had a seven game stretch from Jan. 15 through Feb. 5 where he recorded 42 assists and just six turnovers. During those seven games, Roach didn’t once record a multiple turnover game.
Quite simply, he was one of the best point guards in the country over that time.
“He had that stretch in the middle of the year where he was averaging eight or nine assists a game,” Scheyer said. “Tyus Jones has had the best assist-to-turnover ratio ever in NBA history — Jeremy for that stretch had that as well.
“Really, I don’t think there’s going to be a better point guard in the country than Jeremy Roach. He has the experience. He’s gone through the ups and downs, he’ll have the leadership, but there’s just a couple steps he needs to take with his game. I’m excited to take that journey with him.”
We often hear coaches speak of their players in this manner — player X is the best in the country, or player Y is best in the league.
While only time will tell if Jeremy Roach will be either of those things, the point is Scheyer and his staff have belief in the junior and feel he has the tools necessary to reach that status.
Scheyer pointed out numerous times there’s still work to be done for Roach, but the fact of the matter is he built a strong foundation over the last two seasons to take a huge step forward as a junior.
Roach has shown what he is capable of accomplishing, and like many other players that have come through the Duke program, he’ll be asked to harness those experiences to become the leader the Blue Devils need.
There have been plenty of examples of this in the past — Moore is the most recent. Others certainly exist, including that of Quinn Cook from 2015. While Cook was a senior that season, he was tasked with leading a roster full of ultra talented freshmen.
He was not going to be the best player on the floor, nor was he expected to be. In fact, among the starters, he was probably fourth in line when it came to the group’s best player. Roach will face similarities to that, though the one big difference is he will be the guy to get the team into its offense — whereas Tyus Jones served that role for Cook’s group.
There’s undoubtedly extra burden that comes along with that, but from the growth Roach showed throughout the season, he’s in position to handle all that comes with being the team leader.
“We’ve been through a lot together already and I think he’s poised for a big-time year as a junior being our point guard and leading this team,” Scheyer concluded.
I like the Quin Cook comparison. We can only hope for a similar career at Duke for Jeremy.