Not done yet, Duke basketball hosts veteran transfer guard Thursday for official visit
With seven talented freshmen stocking the roster for next season, Duke still wants to add a more experienced player to Jon Scheyer’s first roster as head coach.
Jacob Grandison, a 6-6 small forward who played at Illinois last season, visited campus Thursday for an official visit in his search for a place to play his final year of college basketball eligibility, according to sources with direct knowledge of his plans.
The 24-year-old Grandison started 23 games, playing in 30, for the Illini last season. He averaged 9.6 points and 3.8 rebounds, hitting 41% of his 3-point attempts. While seeking a master’s degree in business at Illinois, he was named to the academic all-Big Ten team.
Grandison, an Oakland, California native, began his college career at Holy Cross. After playing two seasons at the Patriot League school, Grandison transferred to Illinois and sat out the 2019-20 season.
He started 16 of the last 17 games of the 2020-21 season when the Illini won the Big Ten Tournament and helped Illinois return to the NCAA tournament last season.
Scheyer, in his first two months as Duke’s head coach following Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement, has the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class entering school this summer. He added to that group last week when 6-4 guard Tyrese Proctor, a five-star guard from Australia who had committed for the class of 2023, announced plans to reclassify and enter school a year early.
But Scheyer and his staff have sought more experienced players to pair with their lone returning starter, rising junior guard Jeremy Roach. Duke added 6-6 small forward Kale Catchings from Harvard as a graduate transfer in April.
The Blue Devils added Ryan Young, a 6-10 center who transferred from Northwestern, to provide experience inside to go with freshmen centers Dereck Lively, Kyle Filipowski and Christian Reeves.
“We’re going to have seven 18-year-olds and three or four 23-year-olds on our team,” Scheyer said Wednesday night during an event promoting former Duke and NBA star player Grant Hill’s autobiography at Duke’s Page Auditorium. “So you talk about balance. We’re going to average, 20 or 21. That’s pretty good. That’s the balance that we are going to have.”
While 6-4 guard Trevor Keels was mulling whether or not to stay in the NBA draft following his freshman season with the Blue Devils, Duke welcomed 6-4 guard A.J. Green on a campus visit last month. The two-time Missouri Valley Conference player of the year at Northern Iowa, Green opted to stay in the draft pool rather than transfer to another school to complete his college career.
Duke had interest in Courtney Ramey, a 6-3 guard from Texas who remains in the transfer portal, before Proctor decided to reclassify.
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 9:54 AM with the headline "Not done yet, Duke basketball hosts veteran transfer guard Thursday for official visit."