Duke basketball: Yet another Blue Devil set to transfer

Patrick Tape is the third outbound Duke basketball transfer this offseason.

Over the weekend, four-year Duke basketball combo guard Jordan Goldwire announced his entry into the transfer portal, which now contains more than 1,000 names across the country. And freshman power forward Jaemyn Brakefield had already done the same last week.

Now, as Stephen Wiseman of The News & Observer first reported on Tuesday afternoon, graduate power forward Patrick Tape is also transferring out of Durham. Evidently, as is also the case with Goldwire, Tape may now take advantage of the extra year of eligibility that the NCAA has extended to every player in the nation who took part in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season.

There is not yet word on where Patrick Tape, Jordan Goldwire, or Jaemyn Brakefield will land.

Skimpy playing time for the one-year Duke basketball player

Patrick Tape, who will turn 23 in June and played only one season for the Duke Blue Devils after leaving Columbia last year as a graduate transfer, was essentially the 11th man on a team that finished with a 13-11 record last season. Well, make that the 10th man following the midseason exit of freshman small forward Jalen Johnson.

While Tape had a few solid rebounds and putbacks last season, most of his minutes came in the form of mop-up time. Plus, it was clear in the sparse meaningful action he did receive that his speed — or lack thereof — was not quite on par with all the Blue Devils in the regular rotation.

In all, the 6-foot-9, 235-pound Charlotte native played only 45 minutes across 10 appearances as a Duke basketball player, never seeing more than 10 minutes in any game.

Tape, who became the first and only graduate transfer in program history, finished his brief stint as a Blue Devil with averages of 1.1 points, 1.1 rebounds, 0.2 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.2 blocks while shooting 38.5 percent from the field.

Because Patrick Tape sat out his entire fourth year at Columbia while recovering from a toe injury, the former unranked recruit is now on track to wind up with a college career spanning six years.