Busting Brackets
Fansided

Duke Basketball: 3 takeaways after Trevor Keels departs for NBA Draft

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - APRIL 02: Trevor Keels #1 of the Duke Blue Devils reacts in the second half of the game against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal at Caesars Superdome on April 02, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - APRIL 02: Trevor Keels #1 of the Duke Blue Devils reacts in the second half of the game against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal at Caesars Superdome on April 02, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 4
Next
Courtney Ramey Texas Longhorns (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
Courtney Ramey Texas Longhorns (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /

What options remain in the portal

With Keels not returning to the Blue Devils, there’s still another scholarship that Scheyer can fill by utilizing the Transfer Portal. There’s no doubt that Duke knew that Keels’ departure was possible, even inevitable, so there was always going to be a contingency plan. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, that plan hasn’t exactly gone down as expected.

The big target for the Blue Devils was former Northern Iowa star A. J. Green, a dynamic scorer and former MVC Player of the Year. Instead of coming to Duke or playing for his father at Iowa State, Green recently announced that he too would stay in the NBA Draft. Fortunately, there’s another very solid option for the Blue Devils on the open market.

That option is former Texas guard Courtney Ramey, a talented scorer who remains in the Transfer Portal and has one last year of eligibility. The Blue Devils have already been connected to Ramey and he would help fill that hole of guard depth and veteran leadership. There are also other names still in the Transfer Portal that would make sense, including recent Illini transfer Jacob Grandison, a sharpshooter whose outside shooting would fit in well on a team full of talented big men.