Duke basketball: Projected starters for Coach K’s farewell season
By Matt Giles
Projected Duke basketball starter: Jeremy Roach
Pick Analysis. Guard. Scouting Report. Sophomore. Jeremy Roach. 1. player. 434
No, Jeremy Roach certainly didn’t exceed expectations last season. In fact, when the 6-foot-1, 170-pound point guard wasn’t clanging 3-point attempts or committing silly turnovers, he was often pulling disappearing acts on the floor.
On the other hand, it wasn’t as if the former five-star prospect out of Virginia totally crumbled in his attempt to fill the shoes of a legendary Duke basketball point guard in 2019-20 ACC Player and Defender of the Year Tre Jones.
Rather, Roach showed some promise as a backcourt threat, compiling a handful of impressive stat lines.
Perhaps Roach’s numbers from a late-February home win over Syracuse were his all-around best and most indicative of the box scores to come as a sophomore: 14 points, seven assists, five rebounds, three turnovers, and one steal in 34 minutes while shooting 5-for-7 from the field, including 4-for-5 beyond the arc.
With frequent outings like that, Roach would surely have no problem locking down this starting job next season after seeing 18 starts — despite occasionally zeroing out in the scoring column — between 24 games as a freshman.