After deciding which portal transfers they wanted to pursue this offseason, the Duke basketball coaching staff wasted little time getting to work. The story of Purdue’s Mason Gillis was somewhat humorous, and Jon Scheyer explained it to former Blue Devil Jay Bilas on The Brotherhood Podcast. Scheyer and his assistants were trying to recruit players to Durham this season, and they laid out their criteria in detail. “You watch what Purdue has done and he’s been a key guy for them for years,” said Scheyer.
“He’s the ultimate connector, winner.” Gillis shot 46.8 percent from beyond the arc and averaged 6.5 points per game for the Boilermakers this season; unfortunately, they could not make it past the national championship game. When his school and Duke played a year ago, he scored eight points.
“We were talking as a [coaching] staff one day, true story, and we were just talking about the type of player we’d be looking for and [associate head coach] Chris Carrawell said, ‘Look, those guys are good that’s being mentioned, but the guy that we need is Mason Gillis.’”
