The career of a Duke basketball player in Durham is officially closed.
It has been over two weeks since Duke basketball transfer Joey Baker announced his decision to transfer to Michigan but the former Blue Devil’s time in Durham was not quite finished.
That changed this weekend.
Blue Devil head coach Jon Scheyer tweeted his farewell to the captain from a season ago as the Fayetteville, North Carolina native finished his final academic courses to complete his graduation from Duke.
Baker took great appreciation to the tweet.
Nothing but love Coach 💪🏼 💙 https://t.co/WeiwsKb8QB
— Joey Baker (@Joey_bvker) July 3, 2022
The 6-foot-6 guard averaged 4.1 points per game in his four year career with the Blue Devils and was a 37.9-percent 3-point shooter after entering Durham in the heralded recruiting class comprised of Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, and Tre Jones.
Baker was planning to redshirt his freshman season before late season injuries forced Mike Krzyzewski to play the inexperienced shooter in a late February game against Syracuse and only logged a total of 18 minutes throughout four games.
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Joey Baker was originally planning to return to Duke, as announced by the program, for his final year of eligibility thanks to a blanket waiver granted by the NCAA due to COVID-19 following his offseason hip surgery.
However, the plans for the Blue Devil program changed along with Baker’s and the ‘super’ senior now heads to Ann Arbor, Michigan to try and bring another championship to the Wolverines.
Duke basketball sees major roster turnover entering 2022-23
Duke lost ten total players on its 2021-22 roster, five to the NBA Draft, two to graduation, and three to the transfer portal as Jon Scheyer begins his first season as the head coach of the program.
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The Blue Devils return star point guard Jeremy Roach and bring in the top ranked recruiting class in the country that is comprised of five-star center Dereck Lively, five-star forward Kyle Filipowski, five-star wing Dariq Whitehead, five-star forward Mark Mitchell, four-star guard Jaden Schutt, and four-star combo guard Tyrese Proctor.
Scheyer also added three impact transfers to his roster in Illinois’ Jacob Grandison, Northwester’s Ryan Young, and Harvard’s Kale Catchings.