One of Jon Scheyer’s most important decisions succeeding Mike Krzyzewski as Duke’s head coach came months before he coached his first official game: hiring Rachel Baker in a new “General Manager” role to oversee the program’s NIL initiatives. Baker has proven to be a resounding success, so much so that many other program’s have followed Scheyer’s lead in creating such a position.
The new landscape of college basketball is dominated not just by NIL, but also by the Transfer Portal, which makes it all the more important that Scheyer seems to be embracing the portal as well: after taking only grad transfers in his first season, Duke is in hot pursuit (and trending strongly for) top transfer center Ernest Udeh Jr.