Why Duke’s Isaiah Evans is starting to live up to the hype with more opportunity

The five-star guard is blossoming at exactly the right time with March Madness around the corner.

The Duke Blue Devils have blown past the competition this year, cruising to a 25-3 record, including a whopping 16-1 in the ACC en route to being ranked the No. 2 team in the AP Top 25 and a likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

But, unlike a number of teams in today’s world of college basketball, the Blue Devils have gone against the trend of the transfer portal and instead loaded their roster with six top-40 freshmen, with Cooper Flagg leading the way.

Three of those recruits—Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach—have gone on to start for the Blue Devils this year, and all are expected to be first round picks in the 2025 NBA Draft.

However, as the season has gone along for the Blue Devils, a fourth has emerged in the rotation, serving as the team’s X-Factor off the bench. Who exactly might that be?

Meet five-star freshman Isaiah Evans, a top-15 recruit and one of the more highly-touted in the Class of 2024.

Coming to Duke with hype and high expectations, Evans started the year near the back of the rotation and fighting for minutes in the lineup.

As the season came along, the five-star’s minutes fluctuated, as the Blue Devils had a big group of guards worthy of minutes, including Flagg, Knueppel, Tyrese Proctor, Caleb Foster and Sion James.

However, Evans’ knack for scoring the basketball has vaulted him into being a key member of the rotation, which has come to fruition over the past three games, where the guard has scored at least 15 points in each victory.

One of the best pure scorers not only in the freshman class, but rather in the entire country, Evans has averaged 7.4 points in just 13.8 minutes per game this season, hitting 47.1 percent of his threes on 4.2 attempts per game.

While the scoring has been impressive, it has been the improvement on the defensive end that has led to more minutes for the five-star down the stretch.

“Man, I could talk forever about Isaiah, how proud I am of him,” head coach Jon Scheyer said during his media presser this week. “You know, he’s never been hesitant to shoot in his life. He’s got supreme confidence with that.

“The thing that he’s done, though, he’s become a really good defender. He’s gotten stronger, the work that he’s done in the weight room, his ability to move his feet, his rebounding, his positioning [has all gotten better].”

Electing to come to Duke rather than seeing more of a feature role at another program, Evans hasn’t shied away from the competition and the responsibility. In addition, he is starting to gain the confidence of the coaching staff at the most important time of the season.

“He’s a two-way, big-time wing,” Scheyer continued about Evans. “And so, when he’s in there, I have full confidence in what he’s doing. I think the offense is clear. But on the defensive end, the growth that he’s made has been, you know, really incredible.

“And it’s gonna lead to more minutes down the stretch. Just the role that he plays for us is a key role, and he’s earned that. He’s done that every day in practice, and [I’m] just really proud of him for his attitude.”

The Blue Devils have had strong freshmen classes in the past. But, this group of individuals compares to the field, and Duke has a great shot of making a run to the national championship game this year.

But, in order for them to reach that goal, their depth will need to continue playing well late in the year, with Evans being arguably the most important of that group.

The five-star guard is blossoming at exactly the right time, providing the Blue Devils with a major spark off the bench and living up to the hype.