Tyrese Proctor returning to Duke basketball; questions with UNC basketball

The one and only Brendan R. Marks covers Duke and North Carolina for The Athletic. On Twitter, say, tweet out a story about Tyrese Proctor returning to Duke for his sophomore season.

And I thought, wow, that's cool. It's cool for Duke. Obviously, it's what Tyrese Proctor wanted to do. And why don't we talk to Brendan R. Marks, who covers Duke and North Carolina for The Athletic, because Carolina got some good news with Armando Bacott and R.J. Davis each coming back. So let's start with Tyrese Proctor. A, I don't think you were surprised by this, but he had such a good last six weeks that I think people were wondering if he would come back. So what are your thoughts on Tyrese's decision? You mentioned the last six weeks that Tyrese had. It's kind of a similar situation that Duke had with Mark Williams. At the end of his freshman year, he comes on so strong. People wonder, is he going to try and test the waters, maybe sneak into the first round, and ultimately he comes back and proves that he's a borderline lottery pick.

So I would expect Tyrese to now do a similar thing, and he's going to be one of the centerpieces of John Shire's team next year. No question. Now, Duke has other decisions that are coming down the pike, and you intimated that there might be some more positive decisions. If you're a Duke fan, because I don't want to frame it as positive or negative.

If somebody goes, I don't think it's negative. But for a Duke fan, and people listening are more fans than anything else. So who are the players who you think are leaning towards returning? Yeah, so let me preface by saying that some, sort of to your point, have to leave. Duke has five guys coming in.

There's only a certain number of scholarships. To some extent, some of them have to leave. The guys who I anticipate leaving for sure, Derek Lively is the only one that I feel with 100% uncertainty is probably gone. That has been the plan for him since he was in high school. Number one recruit. He's going to be maybe, if not a lottery pick, then a top 20, top 25 guy. Drake Whitehead falls into a similar camp. There has been some chatter about him potentially entertaining coming back on the NBA side of things, just because scouts didn't necessarily see what they had hoped to for him. But at the same time, more likely than not, he's a first round guy, 20, 25 to the back half of the first round.

Then you get into the other guys. Tyrese Proctor was an expected stay. I expect Mark Mitchell to stay as well. There's a lot of appetite at the next level for his tools, but teams would like to see more skill development from him.

The guy who has the biggest stay or go decision, the one who I feel the least confident in saying which way he'll go, is Kyle Filipowski. If he comes back, he is the star on what it should be, probably a top 10 team. He's going to be a preseason All-American. Let's not forget that he is going to be incredibly marketable in the NIL era. On the other hand, potentially could he sneak into the back half of the first round?

Absolutely. A lot of scouts I talked to liken him to Kelly Olenek or Frank Kaminsky. It basically is a question of how much do you believe in his jump shot, but he's the one I believe who still has a real choice to make. Comparing him to Frank Kaminsky, I'm not sure, is a great thing. To me, when I look at Kyle Filipowski, I see a guy who's got a lot of skill but still has to get maybe in better condition, get stronger to improve some quickness and some explosion off the floor. Otherwise, at the next level, there's a thousand people who are 6'10 and athletic that can limit his effectiveness.

So Kyle's got to take his game. Now, you could certainly improve on those things as a pro. So I don't want to completely discount the fact that he could be the 28th pick in the draft if that's what he wants to be. But he could also go the other way in terms of get better at all of these things. And maybe next year's draft, he could be like number 12. And maybe that's a different situation.

Do you see it playing out that way? Completely agree. Completely agree. And to a lesser extent, that's sort of the hope with Mitchell and Proctor, too, is these guys come back, they develop their deficiencies, and then come next year, we're talking about three guys who all go in the top 20.

I absolutely think that that is possible. With Filipowski, just like you're saying, I know people hear Kelly Olenek, they hear Frank Kaminsky, and that seems almost derogatory. But Frank Kaminsky is a top 10 pick. Kelly Olenek has been a journeyman NBA guy but has made a healthy amount of money in his career. He's been a long-time starter.

Right. So for Filipowski, I do think a lot of it comes down to the shot. Because if he's not able to make that three-point shot consistently, then you're talking about, what, a seven-foot ball handling combo forward sort of deal? He doesn't really offer the rim protection that you would like at a five, so it's just a little bit harder to see.

So if he can come back and up that three-point percentage to 35, 36, 38, 40 percent ambitiously, all of a sudden we're talking about a different draft projection for sure. Brendan Marks from The Athletic is joining us here. Let me ask you about Jeremy Roach before we move over to Chapel Hill.

Because this is an interesting one for me. I don't know where he goes. He doesn't look like an NBA player to me. But Duke's got guards coming in. Tyrese Proctor is coming back. So, Jeremy Roach.

It's a dilemma, for sure. And listen, Jeremy Roach has been an incredibly valuable player at Duke the last two seasons, but to some extent there's some scholarship math you have to do here. And when you factor in Proctor returning, you factor in that Duke has two five-star guards coming in, if you add Jeremy Roach back into the fold, that's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. And so I'm not by any means saying that Duke should push Jeremy Roach out or that that's happening. I'm not saying that he definitely won't be back, because that option is still on the table.

But at least from an NBA perspective, there is not currently an appetite for him. So to me, there are three choices. There are either A, you come back and are a part of an incredibly crowded backcourt. B, you enter the transfer portal and you go be the guy somewhere else. Or option C is maybe Jeremy's just had enough of college. You know, at this point, a lot of the guys he came in with are gone. They're in the pros.

You're doing their thing. Maybe at some point you just want to start your professional career, even if it is overseas. Those are what I see as really the only three options for him at this point. If John Shire ever wants to play three guards, you probably need four or five. Jeremy Roach could have a Quinn Cook-like role on this team. I just love what I have seen from Roach just as a college player and a leader.

I would hate to see him do that in another uniform in college, because to me, he is a Duke Blue Devil through and through. Alright, let me ask you about Armando Bacott, who made the announcement to come back. R.J. Davis as well, before we get to the other guy, maybe the one that people are more concerned about. Let me ask you about those two decisions. My guess is Bacott made a business decision more than anything else. I mean, there's no way he can make more money doing anything other than playing at North Carolina next year, and R.J. Davis is probably pretty similar. Yeah, I'm imagining the conversation between Armando Bacott and his accountant lasted 10 seconds or less.

I'm imagining the conversation was a very quick one. And yeah, you're totally right. The NIL piece is certainly a huge component to Armando Bacott's decision to come back. So too is the fact that this is a guy who has the potential to be the all-time leading rebounder in the modern era. If health allows, that is something where some people want to say that's with an asterisk, it would still be his record. He's going to put the North Carolina single career rebounding record way out of reach, might get into North Carolina's top 10 of scoring. This is a guy who I think legacy matters to him. And as of right now, even with all the accolades, even with the 2022 postseason run, he's not currently scheduled to go up in North Carolina's rafters. I think that's something that matters to him.

And so I think that that does play some factor here. And for R.J. Davis, look, you know, I think a lot of people could make the argument that R.J. was the better of North Carolina's two guards last season, would have liked to have seen him been the primary point guard all of the year. And, you know, now you're getting back a guy who has been, in my opinion, the best three-point shooter on the team, who is a proven floor general, who gets guys involved.

I think he plays a lot of toughness, even for his size. And like you said, now we sort of wait to see what happens with the last decision that North Carolina is really waiting on. And that is Caleb Love.

So what are your thoughts? Like, I don't want to speak ill of any player, but it almost feels like, I don't know, like they almost don't want Caleb Love to come back. And I hate even saying that out loud.

You can tell my hesitancy because I don't want to be that guy. But it almost seems like they might be better off if Caleb Love either goes pro or puts his name in the transfer portal. I think it's probably the most delicate situation that Hubert Davis has had to deal with since becoming North Carolina's head coach.

It is how does he handle the situation? Because clearly the fit on court this season and just strictly on court between Caleb Love and RJ Davis was not there. North Carolina had its fewest assists in a season since that became a stat. Both of their individual assists rates dropped. Ball movement was stagnant.

It didn't work. And so now you're talking about a situation where you already know one guy's coming back. You already know that you've got a big man coming back.

To me, it sort of seems like the writing is on the wall here. And it's almost unthinkable that a guy who hit probably a top three shot in North Carolina basketball history is now most likely, you know, in my opinion, at least not going to be back next season. You know, I would be I won't say just say very surprised. I would be shocked if Caleb Love was back in North Carolina next season. And it's just sort of a stunning change from this time a year ago. We thought Caleb could come back, maybe play himself in the first round territory.

And in no way did that play out. And that's not just on him. That's also on the pieces around him.

But, you know, again, I don't want to speak ill of the will of a kid. He hit one of the biggest shots in Carolina history. He's going to be a legend in Chapel Hill forever. But certainly it does seem as if North Carolina's other moves suggest that the team is ready to move on and sort of hitch its keys in their entirety to RJ Davis. Do we think there's going to be any more player attrition off this roster? Other than Caleb Love, I mean, at this point, we're talking about not having enough guys for a scrimmage in May.

Right. You know, I would not expect there to be. I believe that, you know, a decision on Caleb is probably coming sometime this week, if not early next week.

I was told after the season that it was going to come within two weeks and that that's what this week would be. But at this point, no, we're talking about you've already lost five guys to the portal. You know, he would be number six. You obviously have the two starters who eligibility is gone. You know, it's going to be a totally different. This is a radical roster remake remake for Hubert Davis. And it's an opportunity that he hasn't had since he was head coach. But, you know, I think it's it's a weird one because I believe he deserves that. He's the head coach. He should have an opportunity to build it up with his guys. At the same time, how successfully he does that is going to be judged a lot more critically given the events of the last year than it would have been if this is something that had happened last offseason.

Yeah, it's so interesting to me because and we'll close on this Brendan Marks from the Athletic. The the the previous year, the one that got them to, you know, a 15 point lead on Kansas in the national championship game was really that stretch of basketball was the outlier. Like the team that he inherited as it turns out just was limited and they played that way this year if they had gotten bursts of great Caleb love because that's really what they got last year was burst five-minute explosions of Caleb love which helped them win games. If they would have gotten those this year, their record would have been better. They would have been in the NCAA tournament. They might have beaten a few teams, but they didn't get that this year. And now we're judging them based on the end or judging him Hubert based on the end of last year when that was about loves explosion and Brady Manick really taking that team by the scruff of its neck and dragging them where they got. I think it's unfair to Hubert. It's a tough situation because and you know, I'll just go ahead and pretty blatantly tease that I've got a story coming out later this week about all this.

But it's it is two parts, right? I think obviously you can say that the players didn't play up to their ability. We saw what they look like at their best during the previous postseason admittedly with with one different ingredient in the mix. But at the same time the head coach gets the credit when you win and the head coach gets the blame when you lose and I do think that there are some decisions, especially as it relates to the season that you can question Hubert about, you know, I think bringing in Pete Nance at the end of the day. That's his call and you know, was that the right decision in retrospect? It's easy to say that maybe not. It wasn't a seamless fit.

But you know that that's a hit. That's a Hubert decision, you know, overall style of play. This was a team that defensively played drop coverage the whole year by and large and got eaten up because of it. This is a team that failed to make adjustments.

There were periods due to injuries when Seth Trimble played more minutes of Tyler Nickel or Jalen Washington and a year after he said he wanted to play the bench more he played the bench even less. So it's hard for me because I do think largely he inherited these pieces, but do I think that he necessarily maximized what he had to work with? I don't and so it's a hard evaluation and it's one again. I got some stuff coming later this week. It is one that I think a lot of people in the basketball community are watching to see. Okay next year when he finally has a Hubert Davis North Carolina roster.

What are the Tar Heels capable of and that I think is when we'll be able to evaluate him as a coach a little bit more fairly at Brendan are marks on Twitter. Go be on the lookout for the story coming up about UNC Brendan. I appreciate your time man. Great work as always. Thank you. Sorry I had to say bye to Brendan.

It's fine. I understand. I have mad respect for Brendan Morris. Oh Brendan's great. He is awesome.

It's kind of bummed that he actually didn't get a chance to talk to him as much at ACC tournament as I would like to have. But that's on me. 100%. I'm not commenting. Okay.

Nor do you need to. I do actually want your thoughts and comments on the fact that there's a Highlander reboot that's been in the works for a couple of years. No way. Yes because why not.

Like the Toyota? No I'm talking the movie. Oh never saw it.

The one from 86. Never saw it. There can only be one Highlander.

Well nope. They're going to have a second one. They've been working on it for a while so Chad Stahelski who's been in the works on the project looks like Henry Cavill is actually the one that's actually going to take the lead on this. He's been working on this for a couple of years at least in pre-production but Stahelski's actually been doing so much with the John Wick franchise like John Wick number four just released in theaters recently. Because that movie franchise kind of took off. It was like oh here's Keanu Reeves in this John Wick action movie and everyone loved it and they made a second one and everyone loved it and they made a third one and everyone loved it and so they made a fourth one.

I haven't heard any reviews on it yet. But nevertheless things have been kind of busy with that. Also Henry Cavill's been tied up doing stuff with The Witcher which is a Netflix show and there was discussions about him possibly coming back to play Superman but now he's not. So nevertheless we might see a Highlander reboot actually finally hopefully come out in like 2025 maybe. Can't wait. Nearly 40 years after the original.

Can't can't wait. Well of course you haven't seen the first one so this is brand new for you sir. Yes I have no idea what it is. Is this like Mad Max?

Sure we'll go with that. No is it. I mean remember that you saw the Mad Max right. Oh yeah I know Mad Max. So is it a similar like reboot. No is it like a similar similar style movie.

Highlander sounds like it should be a Mad Max. No no it's definitely not. Right. No. Okay. It's definitely not the same as Mad Max. Is it more Night at the Museum. No.

Love those movies. I'm sure you did. I'm sure you did. By the way there's a few world records set recently. You are captain world record. I do I love looking these things up. I really do.

Victoria finds stupid criminal stories. Yeah. You give me world records. I give you world records. Like an 80 year old Alberta woman who has been regularly donating blood for the last 60 years. Okay. That's good. Earned the Guinness World Record for the most whole amount of blood donated for a female.

Ever. She has donated her name is Josephine. I'm going to butcher the last name. Just call her Josephine. Yeah Josephine.

Who cares. She's 80 years old. Josephine. From Alberta she ain't from Alberta. She's a big Western Hockey League fan I bet.

Of course she is. Has donated a total of 203 units of blood. Which is roughly equivalent to a pint. A unit of blood.

God I would have. She'd been donating blood for 80 years. 60 years. She's 80 years old.

I'm sorry. 1965 at the age of 22 is when she started. So nearly 60. 230 units. 203 units of blood. 203 units. I obviously got all the numbers wrong.

In 60 years. Three and a half units a year. Roughly. Well I know there are times where there were restrictions where you had to go longer amount of time before you could give blood a second time.

Okay. So I know it used to be I was like six months for a while. There was probably a you know influenza or something like that maybe got in the way. She had mono or something. Who knows. Yeah.

But anyway. Her blood type. Yes she revealed that she's O positive. So it's very in demand blood. Is she sure.

She is positive. I apologize. No you should apologize for that. All right. Can I. Yes. Can I interrupt halftime entertainment for one second. I have that joke.

Yes. Well it triggered something I meant to say earlier when I was starting to talk about the field trip I was on. You can keep the halftime entertainment music up.

This is going to be entertaining Dennis. Oh OK. All right. So I don't know how you feel about corny dad jokes. OK. I can lean into it.

Not a not a dad. You have to have a different appreciation for this. So for years whenever we're driving me and my 14 year old Jack if we pass a cemetery I will say you know people are dying to get into that place right. You understand that right.

You understand the stupidity there. We were at Arlington Cemetery and 14 year old boys will joke about anything. He said to his friends as we were walking up to the tomb of the unknown soldier or actually it was on the way down. Yeah.

He said you know people are dying to get in here. And all I could think all I could feel was pride that my stupid dad joke whether you feel it was inappropriate at the time or not. And I'm here for that argument.

OK 14 year old boy that he fought to bring that out to his friends means that I have had an impact. All right. I'm sorry you continue. I apologize. It just made me feel sometimes I don't know what to think about. Right.

I agree with you. Well how do you like cake. You like cake balls. Yeah. Yeah absolutely.

A little ball. Fine. Yeah. OK. By the way it's Starbucks like a dollar fifty for that for a little for a little morsel for a glorified munchkin. Yeah.

Get out of here. I can believe that. Well anyway. Well go to a Nebraska based coffee chain which set a Guinness World Record for assembling an 800 pound cake ball. That's right. An 848 pound cake ball in celebration of its 25th anniversary scooters coffee based in Omaha. You know what.

You're the college world series go to go to scooters. Maybe this 848 pound cake ball is going to be there. I'm blown away by that. An 848 pound cake. Was it just is it chocolate is it vanilla. Is it.

I don't know. I never actually I never actually did see what what kind of flavor cake it was. I just want yellow cake and chocolate icing.

That's all I want. If I'm simple like an 848 pound cake bomb. First of all it's got to be gigantic. It's a boulder. It's not a ball.

Yeah. It's a massive rock. But I would think it's probably a fruit cake ball because that's the heaviest cake you could have. That's fair. It's a good point. Also who would want to eat that.

I would not. Nobody. By the way they beat the record which was previously 628 pounds so they blew it out. My gosh. It was set by England Sheffield Wednesday Football Club back in 2017. Oh my God.

Tying sports into this one Adam. I think Sheffield Wednesday is about to bump up to the championship. Oh are they. I think they're in league one about the bump up. Okay well good for them. Final thing here Mike Trout and Tiger Woods are teaming up together to build a new private golf club in southern New Jersey.

They announced that today. In Pineville. I'm not sure exactly sure if it's in Pineville. Well I mean he's I think he is he from Pineville.

Oh Mike Trout. He's from Vineland New Jersey. It's about 40 miles south of North Carolina. It's down by Charlotte. Yeah. Okay Vineland New Jersey yes. So yeah they hope to have the club will be open to members in 2025 but they're building a golf course in southern New Jersey.

Unfortunately nobody who plays at that club will win anything. Tiger Woods Mike Trout. That was that it was really more of a Mike Trout. I apologize. Yeah. Okay.

That's all I have for you. All right. That's fine. That's fine.

My gosh. I apologize for the dad joke portion of the program. I don't know what to think of that.

I apologize for the dad joke portion of the program. I don't know how to process this. My heart felt full just at just at the fact that he brought that out to his friends. Like your 14 year old supposed to roll his eyes at everything you do and he dropped that on them. I'm sorry. I felt I felt some type of way after that.

I really did feel feel very good about things about everything after that. Quickly to Lamar Jackson who was given the non-exclusive franchise tag by the Baltimore Ravens which will pay him about 33 34 million if he signs it this year. He will not and they're trying to negotiate a contract in a way I guess. Lamar Jackson wants Deshaun Watson's contract.

230 some odd million guaranteed over I think it's four or five years. And the Ravens are not about to guarantee the entirety of that contract. What Lamar Jackson wants is to take Deshaun Watson's contract right in the margins plus one dollar and be done with it. And the Ravens do not appear inclined to do so unless somebody else does it first and then the Ravens would probably match. I don't know who's going to be quarterback for the Ravens. Otherwise, I don't know what their prospects of making the playoffs are if Lamar Jackson isn't their quarterback. But anyway, John Harbaugh the head coach of the Ravens was at the NFL meetings in Arizona and he was speaking when it was brought to his attention that Lamar Jackson had it released on his own. I think Twitter or Instagram that he had asked the Ravens for a trade on March 2nd.

Here's John Harbaugh. I haven't seen the tweet. It's an ongoing process. I'm following it very closely just like everybody else is here and looking forward to a resolution. I'm excited thinking about Lamar all the time thinking about him as our quarterback. We're building our offense around that idea and I'm just looking forward to getting back to football and I'm confident that's going to happen. He's following it very closely but either he knew that Lamar Jackson had done that or he's not following it as closely as he thinks. I don't know how this is going to play out.

It really... I think right now the most likely scenario is that Lamar Jackson doesn't play football in 2023. That's what I think the most likely scenario is today. Is there another team that is going to commit 200 and let's just say 250 million to Lamar Jackson over five years? Guarantee it. And if you guarantee it, you must have that money in escrow at the time you guarantee the contract. So that money is already spoken for. Now all of these teams in the NFL can afford it.

Every single one of them can afford that. But that's just not common practice in the NFL. We always forget the real reason Deshaun Watson signed that contract. Not that he signed that contract. That he was offered that contract. Is because the Cleveland Browns knew that there was no other chance he would ever go there.

Ever. That's why they offered the contract. Is another team going to do that for Lamar Jackson?

Certainly I'd rather do it for Lamar Jackson than Deshaun Watson. But is another team going to do that? If... Random team. The Tennessee Titans. If the Tennessee Titans decided to do that. A. What's the pushback on the Tennessee Titans for doing that? Because there was pushback on Jimmy Aslam in Cleveland. And B. How fast would the Ravens match it?

Interesting. Ravens don't really have another option. They could, you know, use similar quarterbacks they used at the end of last year. But they really don't have another option.

Their whole team is built around Lamar Jackson. With that said, it's time to play some bets. Place your bets. Place your bets. I bet you slice into the woods a hundred bucks.

Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, sir, and I never slice. Okay, you can owe me. I owe you. All right, sir.

Where do we go, Dennis Cox? I won plus sixteen hundred on Miami. Nice. It made the making the final four. It made all of the NCAA bets. Made it good. I think I was like plus eleven hundred on my NC because I made so many.

Yeah, plus sixteen hundred mattered because we lost more than we won otherwise. So I had a couple of the conference over at three conference over-unders under Big 12 under Big 10 and over West Coast Conference. I like it. There you go. I'm going to the ice. Islanders need a win to make the playoffs. They're scratching and clawing to make the playoffs. They're playing the Devils who we want to lose because they're chasing the canes. So give me the Islanders over the Devils at plus one ten. Yeah, I thought about that, but Devils on the road best. I believe they have the best record in hockey on the road.

They're better on the road than they are at home and they can lose today. They can and that would be that would be fine. It would be acceptable even encouraged by me as well. I'm going to do something in the game, but I'm not going to do the game. I'm going to do an anytime goal scorer. So let's go. Let's go Dawson Mercer at plus 240 anytime goal scorer for the Devils.

All right. Staying on the ice. The Colorado Avalanche on the road playing the Anaheim Ducks. Give me Cale McCarr to score the last goal of the game at plus seventeen hundred. Cale McCarr last goal.

I like last goal. Yes. Empty netter. Oh gush. Gush. Whatever that means.

All right means good and exactly. All right, give me African Cup of Nations match. I knew you're going to the Sudan playing host to Gabon.

I probably said that wrong. Let me get on plus 135 to win on the road. It's tough going into the Sudan and coming out with a win though. I'll tell you that. Okay, give me Miami to win the National Championship plus 475 speaking to me. I'm not going to do any basketball until we get toward the end of the week.

All right. Give me it see the the Mavericks are at the Pacers. The Mavericks are in a bad way. It's got lost in the horn. The Pacers are no good.

Indiana plus 145 outright money line bet. Oh, okay. And paces are no good Mavericks. They might miss the entire playoffs. Yeah, they traded for Kyrie Irving and they might miss the playoffs.

Whoops. Yeah, I don't know how this is gonna whole thing gonna play out. Jason Kidd's not happy was calling out Luka Doncic Doncic says he's not happy. The whole thing is a mess.