Duke basketball hints at one player's return next season

Duke basketball's matchup against the NC State Wolfpack (22-8, 12-7 ACC) at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday (ESPN) is a super-senior night.

The Blue Devils (21-8, 12-6 ACC), hoping to finish 16-0 in Cameron Indoor Stadium by avenging their dismal early January loss in Raleigh, don't have traditional seniors on their roster, not even the walk-on variety. But there are four grad transfers: Ryan Young, Jacob Grandison, Kale Catchings, and Max Johns.

So the absence of Young's picture in the following Tuesday tweet from the Duke basketball program seems to all but confirm that the 23-year-old New Jersey native will return for Jon Scheyer's second season at the helm:

LAST CAMERON GAMEDAY‼️

🆚 NC State
⏰ 7 ET
📺 ESPN#HereComesDuke 🏰😈 pic.twitter.com/Gdjo2A2V3R
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) February 28, 2023

When Ryan Young announced his transfer from Northwestern last April, he implied that he planned to stay in Durham for two years while pursuing a graduate degree from Duke's Fuqua School of Business. If that plan had changed, one would think the above tweet would have included him alongside Johns, Grandison, and Catchings.

Although Young is already in his fifth year of college, he has one year of eligibility remaining because 1) he redshirted his first year at Northwestern and 2) the NCAA did not count the truncated 2020-21 season against anyone's eligibility.

He has played in all 29 games for the Blue Devils, averaging 7.4 points and 6.2 rebounds. Although he's drawn nine starting nods, he's been the backup to presumed one-and-done center Dereck Lively II as of late.

Meanwhile, the 2023 Duke basketball recruiting class seems complete. And it does not contain any centers.

Therefore, Young looks to be the top candidate to start at the five-spot for the 2023-24 Blue Devils unless Scheyer and his cohorts seek a formidable big man in the transfer portal. Or it's possible Christian Reeves, a 7-foot-1 freshman who has played only 34 minutes this season, will make a giant leap in the offseason.

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