What does the Purdue transfer have to say about his move to Duke?
As Duke fans know, Mason Gillis transferred from Purdue during Portal season and will spend his last season as a Blue Devil. Caleb Foster interviews him here for the Brotherhood Podcast.
Gillis brings a lot to Duke Basketball. At 6-6, he adds to the immense size of this team and he also shoots 46 percent from three point range. And he adds a lot of experience too: Gillis is 23 years old. Since we’ve seen a lot of Duke teams in recent years where almost no one is older than 20, that’s part of a huge change.
Add him in with Sion James, Cameron Sheffield, Neal Begovich, Spencer Hubbard and Stanley Borden and Duke has six seniors or grad students. And yes, three of those are either walk-ons or former walk-ons, but they can all streamline practice and set off-court expectations.
Toss in Maliq Brown (21), Tyrese Proctor (20) and you have to get to Caleb Foster before you get to a teenager on this roster. It’s a huge change, more significant than Duke’s impressive size.
Speaking of size, Proctor is now listed at 6-6 and Kon Knueppel has grown to 6-7, increasing the Blue Devils overall height advantage even more. Of the scholarship players, excluding former walk-on Hubbard (5-8), Foster (6-5) is now the shortest guy on the team.
Gillis is likely to be a big advantage for Duke. He’s experienced, he understands a sixth man role, having been the Big Ten’s Sixth Man of the Year, and he’s obviously mature. We haven’t watched the podcast yet but within the first few seconds with Foster, he establishes that he is the older guy, but does so in a kind and non-threatening way. That’s impressive.
