Patrick Tape: "At Duke, I Can Find Like-Minded People"
Patrick Tape will be joining Duke for his final year of college eligibility. The graduate transfer from Columbia will be one of two post players on the Blue Devils’ roster.
Working on a plan that will leave him with degrees from Columbia and Duke, clearly, there is more than basketball on Tape’s radar.
“Coming out of high school, that was a big thing to me that my parents taught me when I was younger,” he said in an appearance earlier this month on the YouTube show the Absolute Basketball Experience with Jamie Shaw. “Education comes first.”
Tape will likely get the chance to play professional basketball somewhere, whether it’s in the U.S. or overseas, after he finishes at Duke. But he clearly has very strong fallback options.
“After basketball, looking into my future career plans, I majored in urban studies—urban design, development planning, those aspects,” Tape said. “My Masters in Management degree (at Duke) is a little more business-oriented. I’m still pretty open to what I want to do. Hopefully, at Duke, I can find like-minded people and go from there.”
For now, Tape is doing the best he can to prepare for next season.
“I don’t have access to a gym,” he said, “but I do go to the park and run. I try to stay in shape that way but no basketball right now.”
Duke’s strength and conditioning staff sent Tape a conditioning program.
“We have a three-day lifting schedule,” he said. “I don’t have access to weights, so it’s a lot of pushups, pullups, planks. I’m trying to run stairs, suicides.”
While there will still be a wait before Tape can report to Duke, there are signs that the campus will be opening at some point in the near future, and the Charlotte native can play in front of his friends and family across the state.
“After I recommitted, everything happened so quickly,” he said. “I was so caught up in how excited I was about it. I (eventually) got to realize Duke is such a exciting opportunity. My family is nearby. I have a couple cousins and relatives in the Chapel Hill area. They’re excited for me, as well as my mom. (They’ll be) coming to games. I’m very appreciative.”
