By: Ben McCormick
January 2, 2023
Before the era of the mass movement that is the modern transfer portal, Duke rarely saw any transfers come in. In 2020 Duke saw their very first graduate transfer in Patrick Tapè. Since then the program has welcomed six more graduate transfers, including four this season alone. Before Tapè, Duke had only housed three transfers in the entire decade of the 2010s.
Here I will rank the handful of transfers the Blue Devils landed in that final era of the redshirt transfer--plus Theo John and Bates Jones from last season, and this season's grad transfers: Ryan Young, Jacob Grandison, Kale Catchings, and Max Johns. Seeing as this season has not come to a close, this list could change by the end of the year potentially.
It will be a short list, but the stark differences in the impact all ten players had is eye opening, and this list will be particularly interesting in ten years when the total number of incoming transfers to Duke will have multiplied exponentially.
Without further ado, here are the ten transfers to Duke since 2010 ranked.
10. Max Johns (2023), from Princeton
Max Johns was a locker room presence addition for Jon Scheyer's first team at Duke. Johns is one of four graduate transfers on roster this season, and after averaging 2.8 PPG in 30 games played for Princeton in 2021-2022, Johns has appeared in just four of Duke's first 14 games (as of Jan. 2). In those four games, Johns has yet to score. Still, his veteran presence on a team with seven freshman and only two returning roster members cannot be looked past. Just like the other three current roster members on this list, Johns' story at Duke is not over yet, which is why this list may see some changes before the season's end.
9. Sean Obi (2015-2017), from Rice
Sean Obi was named to the C-USA All-Freshman team during his lone season at Rice after averaging a near double-double with 11.4 PPG and 9.3 RPG. Obi was a force inside and a welcomed transfer to Durham where he would sit out during the 2014-2015 season. In fact, Obi was the final player to transfer to Duke while the mandatory redshirt rule was in place. A member of National Championship and ACC Championship rosters, Obi accumulated rings during his time at Duke, but he was never active on either of those teams. Obviously, Obi never actually played on the 2015 championship team, but he didn't play for the 2017 ACC Championship team either. His time at Duke was riddled by injuries which severely limited the amount of time he could play.
Obi only saw time in one season for Duke, 2015-2016, in which he would play in just 10 games and score just 5 total points, good for 0.5 PPG. Following his third season on roster at Duke, Obi received his bachelor's degree and decided to once again enter the portal, this time as a graduate transfer. Obi played his fifth year at Maryland where he averaged 1.4 PPG. Although he was never able to replicate his success at Rice, Obi is a interesting figure in Duke history: the final transfer to Durham before the eligibility rule change.
8. Patrick Tapè (2021), from Columbia
Patrick Tapè was the first ever graduate transfer to commit to Mike Krzyzewski during his tenure at Duke. Oddly enough, it took until his 41st season to dip into the graduate transfer pool, and Kryzyewski picked a year more uncertain than any other in college basketball to break this new ground. Tapè's year in Durham was an interesting one to say the least. The players were confound to a hotel room, half the games were canceled due to COVID, and the team was sent home prematurely in the postseason due to a disease for the second consecutive season.
After averaging 11.3 PPG and just under 6 RPG during his final season at Columbia, Tapè made the move to Duke due to the Ivy League canceling its basketball season in 2020-2021. At Duke, Tapè played in just 10 games, starting one, and averaged 1.1 PPG. He saw some time during big games, but often only for a minute or two at a time. After the conclusion of the season, Tapè used his extra "COVID year" to head to San Francisco where he averaged 5.1 PPG as a starter in all 34 games,
7. Kale Catchings (2023), from Harvard
Just like Johns, Kale Catchings is using his extra year of eligibilty to transfer from an Ivy League school to Duke where he can continue to receive a high level of education and compete on the highest level on the court as well. The nephew of WNBA legend Tamika Catchings, Kale averaged 9.1 PPG in 2021-2022 at Harvard. So far at Duke, Kale has played in just four games, scoring six total points. Kale has not often seen the court, but that is not because of a lack of skill. The fifth year senior scored 7 points in the team's scrimmage at Countdown to Craziness and he has demonstrated a flurry of moves around the basket, most notably a reverse layup package. His low numbers are only a result of Duke's great depth ahead of him in rotation.
6. Bates Jones (2022), from Davidson
Bates Jones, the brother of former Duke football star and current starting quarterback for the New York Giants Daniel Jones, was the go-to guy for Mike Krzyzewski whenever he needed to extend his bench to nine guys in 2021-2022. A graduate transfer from Davidson, where he averaged 2.6 PPG in his final season with the Wildcats, Bates got a reputation for being a marksman from deep. At times his shot didn't translate to Duke, but he played in 27 games for a Duke team that made it to the Final Four and averaged 1.4 PPG on 31% shooting from beyond the arc.
5. Theo John (2022), from Marquette
Theo John was hard to place. He is the only player on this list that was a true rotation player on a Final Four team. The second man off the bench in 2021-2022, John was the dirty work guy for Coach K's last team, not necessarily a scorer, but consistently impactful. In fact, his 10 point affair against NC State last season was his only double-digit scoring affair at Duke. He averaged just 2.8 PPG, 2.5 RPG, and 0.9 BPG, but he saw big minutes in big games. For instance, he saw a lot of time in Duke's final four matchup with North Carolina due to Mark Williams' foul trouble. As impactful as he was, his numbers were a bit disappointing.
It's not like he was an offensive dynamo at Marquette. His best scoring average was 8.1 PPG in 2020-2021. But, he was a highly touted defender and shot blocker. In each of his last three seasons at Marquette he averaged anywhere from 1.5 to 2.1 BPG en route to becoming second all-time in blocks at Marquette.
4. Jacob Grandison (2023), from Illinois
So far, Jacob Grandison has been inconsistent. He has scored as much as 16 points in a game for Duke in its first 14 games, but he averages just south of 6 PPG. However, his shooting has made him an impactful force off the bench for Scheyer's Blue Devils.
Already 24-years-old, Grandison is now at his third school. He began at Holy Cross in 2017-2018 (making him one year in between Jayson Tatum and Zion Williamson in age), where he averaged 13.9 PPG as a sophomore before transferring to Illinois after the 2018-2019 season. He sat out in 2019-2020, and then played for two years at Illinois, where he started last season averaging 9.6 PPG on 41% 3-point shooting. Now in his sixth year in college, and fifth year playing in games, Grandison is a veteran presence for a young Blue Devil squad. And speaking of Young...
3. Ryan Young (2023), from Northwestern
As it stands, Ryan Young, a graduate transfer from Northwestern, has a real case to be Duke's first ever ACC Sixth Man of the year. Be that as it may, Young currently stands at 8th in the nation in offensive rating, 11th in 2-point percentage, and 13th in offensive rebounding percentage. He has been an elite offensive presence off the bench for Duke this season. Fresh off a perfect shooting night (7-7 FG and 6-6 FT) against Florida State that led to a 20-point, 12-rebound double-double, Young is looking good for Duke heading into 2023.
At Northwestern Young averaged 9 PPG and 4.2 RPG last season, now he is averaging 8.1 PPG and 7.1 RPG at Duke, where interestingly enough, he still has another year of eligibility after this season if he choose to use it.
2. Rodney Hood (2013-2014), from Miss. St.
The only player on this list to be drafted into the NBA is Rodney Hood. After averaging 10.3 PPG at Mississippi State, his hometown team, in 2011-2012, Hood transferred to Duke where he sat out in 2012-2013.
I met Hood when I was younger during his redshirt season at Duke. It was after Countdown to Craziness, and many fans (especially younger ones like me at the time) typically wait outside afterward for autographs. People were flocking to Quinn Cook and Rasheed Sulaimon, but when Rodney Hood walked out, everyone sort of hesitated. Everyone except for me that is. I went straight up to Rodney and proudly asked for an autograph. A man then asked me, "excuse me, who is that?" I replied, "that's Rodney Hood, a transfer from Mississippi State." Once they all knew he was on the team they went and asked Rodney for an autograph. But many of them did not yet know who he was. A little over a year later, you would be hard pressed to find a Duke fan who didn't know Rodney Hood.
Hood went on to average 16.1 PPG for Duke in 2013-2014 where he was second in scoring only to Jabari Parker. He was named to 2nd team All-ACC, the only Blue Devil to be named to an All-ACC team in his first eligible year after transferring. Although Duke did not have much postseason success, Hood's stellar play earned him a slot as a first round pick to the Utah Jazz in the 2014 NBA Draft in what would be the beginning of an 8-year NBA career.
1. Seth Curry (2010-2013), from Liberty
The name Curry holds a lot of weight in the world of basketball. And although Stephen is the one with most of the praise and acclaim, his younger brother Seth has carved out quite the career himself. Now a member of the Brooklyn Nets, Seth is a 10-year NBA veteran after graduating from Duke, but before any of that, he played at Liberty.
At Liberty, Seth averaged 20.2 PPG and was named the Big South Freshman of the Year. After scoring an unreal 707 points as a freshman, Seth left for bigger dreams in 2009. He decided to transfer to Duke, the very school that had refused to offer his brother Stephen. He sat out the 2009-2010 National Championship season, but jumped immediately into the rotation of the preseason No. 1 Blue Devils in 2010-2011. After Kyrie Irving was injured in non-conference play, Seth entered the starting lineup, and ended the season averaging 9 PPG. But it was as an upperclassman that Seth really broke into his own at Duke. In 2011-2012, Seth averaged 13.2 PPG and was named to 3rd team All-ACC. In his final season at Duke, Seth was a team captain, and a 2nd team All-ACC selection after averaging 17.5 PPG on 43.8% shooting from deep. Seth was also named to select All-American teams in 2013 and was a consistently great free throw shooter during his career.
Seth scored 1,394 points during his time at Duke, and totaled 2,101 points in his college career. He had as good of a career as any transfer that has ever come into Durham, and any future transfer will be hard pressed to knock him off that pedestal.
@Duke_Wisdom
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