Former Duke captain Jeremy Roach admits it’s ‘weird’ as Baylor readies for Blue Devils

The championship-hungry Duke Blue Devils will now need to beat a team featuring one of their former team captains to keep their season alive.

Once projected as a “fun” matchup, the Duke-Jeremy Roach showdown is now a reality, with a lot at stake.

Roach, a four-year member of Duke’s rotation and two-year captain, no longer starts for the Baylor Bears, but he’s still important to their game and will no doubt be helping them scout for Sunday’s NCAA Tournament second-round game against Duke at 2:40 p.m. at Lenovo Center.

“It’s going to be cool,” Roach said Saturday. “Definitely excited for the matchup, not trying to overlook it or make anything bigger than what it is.

“I mean, it’s March Madness, but at the same time, it’s still another basketball game. I don’t want to get into (how) I used to go to Duke or anything like that. Just focus on what Baylor has to do — personnel, scout, stuff like that. Getting me ready mentally and physically. So not trying to put too much into it.”

There’s so much background it’s impossible not to look at this.

Roach played four seasons at Duke, including the 2022 season when he moved back into the starting lineup for the postseason and helped the Blue Devils reach the Final Four.

A team captain his last two seasons, he helped Duke transition to associate head coach Jon Scheyer, who took over as head coach following Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement. Duke won the 2023 ACC championship and made the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight last season.

In the aftermath of a crushing loss to N.C. State that denied Duke another Final Four appearance, Roach had a decision to make. He had one more year of eligibility, thanks to the NCAA’s rule that didn’t count the 2020-21 COVID-impacted season against eligibility limits. Roach also had an eye on a professional career.

He and Scheyer met and talked often, natural as they are extremely close because Scheyer recruited Roach to Duke in the first place.

Ultimately, with a loaded class of freshmen arriving at Duke, the two decided they needed to part ways.

“Jeremy and I have had a lot of, just honest, great conversations through the years,” Scheyer said on Saturday. “I think with the COVID year and guys having extra years of eligibility, these types of things can come up. It was handled with love, honesty, and we just felt, mutually, both ways, that it was the best thing for him in his career, and obviously just where we had to go because of that.

“I have nothing but love for Jeremy, and our relationship is strong. He’ll be a Duke guy forever.”

Said Roach, “He understood and I understood the situation. So it was both mutual and he just wanted what was best for me. He always checks up on me, just making sure I’m good and doing what I’m supposed to do, just making sure everything’s good.”

So now that friendship and bond will be tested, a product of the NCAA men’s basketball committee creating a bracket that paired them in the second round if both advanced. It’s even more intriguing because the game will be played in the Triangle, a half hour or so from Duke’s campus.

“For us,” Roach said, “it’s about playing hard for 40 minutes, really blocking all the noise. I mean, it’s gonna be a home game for Duke, for them.”

Last April, in the aftermath of the loss to N.C. State that ended Duke’s season, Tyrese Proctor had Roach to lean on as they absorbed it.

They’ve played against one another plenty of times in summer pickup games or in practice.

Now, they face each other in a game that will either send Duke to the Sweet 16 and end Roach’s college career, or deliver a crushing defeat to a Blue Devils team that looks like a national championship contender.

“We hung out all the time off the court,” Proctor said, “and he just encouraged me all the time, gave me confidence. It was great playing with him for the last two years. That’s sort of where my mind’s at right now.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2025 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Former Duke captain Jeremy Roach admits it’s ‘weird’ as Baylor readies for Blue Devils."

Steve Wiseman

The News & Observer

919-419-6671

Steve Wiseman was named Raleigh News & Observer and Durham Herald-Sun sports editor in May 2025. He covered Duke athletics, beginning in 2010, prior to his current assignment. In the Associated Press Sports Editors national contest, he placed in the top 10 in beat writing in 2019, 2021 and 2022, breaking news in 2019, event coverage in 2025 and explanatory writing in 2018. Before coming to Durham in 2010, Steve worked for The State (Columbia, SC), Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, S.C.), The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.), Charlotte Observer and Hickory (NC) Daily Record covering beats including the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints, University of South Carolina athletics and the S.C. General Assembly. He’s won numerous state-level press association awards. Steve graduated from Illinois State University in 1989.