Duke basketball freshman forward Mark Mitchell will return for his sophomore season, he announced in a Thursday tweet.
Mitchell scored 9.1 points per game in 35 games, putting him behind freshman center Kyle Filipowski, junior guard Jeremy Roach and freshman guard Tyrese Proctor on the team's scoring list, according to ESPN.
Mitchell hurt his knee in practice earlier this month, keeping him out of Duke's loss to the Tennessee Volunteers in the second round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. He scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds the game before.
“He's been a key guy for us,” said Duke head coach Jon Scheyer, via On3 writer and editor Steve Samra. “He's started every game. He's been — he's really the guy where he defends everybody, he's a jack-of-all-trades. You can have anybody on the court with him.”
Mitchell, a former five-star recruit out of Sunrise Christian High School in Wichita, Kansas, chose the Blue Devils over offers from Kansas, Missouri, UCLA, Arkansas, North Carolina, USC, Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan, among others, when he enrolled with the Blue Devils in August. Scheyer took point on the 6-foot-8-inch forward's recruitment, according to 247Sports.
The McDonald's All-American earned a place in a Duke recruiting class that featured four five-star recruits. Filipowski, five-star center Dereck Lively II, and forward Dariq Whitehead highlighted a class ranked first in the nation.
Whitehead decided to enter the 2023 NBA draft on Wednesday. The 6-foot-7-inch forward thanked his family, friends and coaches in his final message before entering the draft pool.
“To my Duke Family, I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for your support this past year,” Whitehead's statement read. “Through the ups and downs, I'm beyond grateful for the love and encouragement you've shown me during my time in Durham. I will always be a Blue Devil.”
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