Former Duke standout Jeremy Roach transferred to Baylor this offseason in a significant transaction that shook up the makeup of two teams likely to enter the season ranked inside the top 10 of the polls. The move was a bit of a surprise given Roach’s successful four-year tenure in Durham as blue-blooded Blue Devil, and in an interview this week with The Field of 68, he revealed for the first time that it wasn’t necessarily his preference to move on.
“Personally, I wanted to stay,” he said. “But stuff didn’t meet up, and it was just my time to go. … I did my four years, sacrificed a whole lot, and I made the most of it. It was no hard feelings or anything like that. It was all cool.”
In the end, Roach, who finished as the team’s second-leading assist man each of the last two seasons, says the parting was mutual.
“It was kind of like a mutual thing. [Jon Scheyer] already knew what was kind of expected,” Roach said.
“I made the most of what I did [at Duke],” he continued. “It’s great getting back to what I do. Ball is in my hands now, I have to make plays for myself and others now.”
Read between the lines here and there seems to be two things to glean.
The first: Duke may not have wanted to or been able to allocate the NIL to accommodate a potential return for Roach with Cooper Flagg and the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in tow.
The second: Roach seems to be thrilled about the prospect of returning to his roots as a lead guard, this after playing both on and off the ball and functioning frequently as a scorer with the Blue Devils.
“I feel more comfortable. I feel free,” he said. “Getting back to myself [at point] — there’s nothing like it.”
Roach is one of the centerpieces of a remade Baylor roster headlined by No. 5 overall recruit V.J. Edgecombe and a trio of transfers that also includes Norchad Omier and Jalen Celestine. The Bears finished 24-11 last season and are poised to enter the 2024-25 season as a preseason top 10 team, which would be the fourth time in the last five years under Scott Drew.
