Duke has lost a lot since the end of the season — specifically eight of its top 10 scorers, including each of the top four. I don’t care how heralded your recruiting class is, or how great Cooper Flagg might be, that’s a lot to lose from one year to the next. So, obviously, Jon Scheyer really needed to restock via the transfer portal, and — just a couple of days after landing Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown — the third-year coach took another step in the right direction Monday by securing a commitment from Mason Gillis, a 6-foot-6 forward who started 63 games at Purdue over the past four seasons while helping the Boilermakers reach the title game of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Gillis is a sensible addition.
He’s a fifth-year player who shot 46.8% from 3-point range this past season while serving as a floor-spacing forward beside two-time CBS Sports National Player of the Year Zach Edey. As my colleague Seth Davis would say, Gillis is a quintessential glue-guy — the type of experienced piece who should be an important role player for a Duke program whose goal is to win the 2025 NCAA Tournament. His commitment is among the reasons the Blue Devils are up to No. 3 in Version 9.0 of the 2024-25 CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 college basketball rankings.
Kansas remains No. 1 in the Top 25 And 1. Houston is still No. 2. Iowa State is one spot below Duke at No. 4. And North Carolina is down to No. 5 after my colleague Jon Rothstein reported Monday that Harrison Ingram intends to remain in the 2024 NBA Draft even though there’s no guarantee he’ll be selected. That means UNC is now set to lose three of the top five scorers from this past season’s team that secured a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But the expected return of RJ Davis, Elliot Cadeau, Jae’Lyn Withers and Jalen Washington — plus the enrollment of five-star freshmen Ian Jackson and Drake Powell — should keep UNC near the top of the ACC standings.