COLLEGE basketball is but days away from returning in season 2024/25 and there are many Australians that will be fighting for a spot in the madness of March.

One of those is six-foot-six guard Tyrese Proctor who, along with head coach Jon Scheyer, enters his third season with the Duke Blue Devils. They will be setting out to go two steps further than last year’s disappointing exit, and Proctor is going to play a key role in making that happen.

Four of Tyrese Proctor’s teammates have been drafted in the last two NBA drafts. He has been a projected first round draft pick in each of those same two seasons, but after both years he returned to Duke University. He now finds himself heading the most talented Blue Devils squad that he has been a member of with every opportunity to cut down the nets in March.

Proctor will patrol the point guard position for Scheyer’s side which boasts four freshmen all capable of being lottery picks in the 2025 NBA Draft. 

You would think this may bring a lot of pressure onto the shoulders of the 20-year-old Australian, but evidently one of those four freshmen carries more pressure and weight of expectation than anyone in college basketball this year.

His name is Cooper Flagg, and he has long been expected to have his name read out first on draft night in 2025. Proctor will be tasked with setting up Flagg, along with the rest of this star-studded Duke roster for opportunities, while trying to prove he belongs at NBA level by showing off his scoring ability and defence as well. It will be no easy task.

In 2023, his first season of college basketball, Proctor averaged 9.4 points to go with three assists and three rebounds per game. Last season, alongside now-NBA players Jared McCain and Kyle Filipowski, he bumped up his shooting percentages and raised those averages to 10.5 points, and nearly four assists per game.

Proctor is a combo guard out of Sydney, who can score in multiple ways. His perimeter shooting comes naturally, nailing nearly 34 per cent of his three-point attempts across his college career, and he is also capable of scoring in isolation or transition, where he utilises his crafty change of speed to attack the rim.

As he looks to push himself back into contention to be a lottery pick in the 2025 NBA draft, he will need to take advantage of his defensive upside and instincts and set his teammates up with smart ball movement and passing. 

Just days out from the first game of the NCAA College Basketball season, in which the Blue Devils will open their account against Maine, it is unclear whether Proctor will remain the starting point guard, or whether Duke’s promising depth will push him to a bench role.

He did not start in either of the team’s two exhibition games, but head coach Jon Scheyer has not yet revealed what the makeup of the rotations will look like, citing an experimental phase of player combinations that will likely see plenty of different line-ups early in the season. 

Duke has ended the regular season with a record of 27-9 in each of Proctor’s two years with the club and will look to improve on their March Madness exits in the Round of 32 in 2023 and in the Elite Eight in 2024. Boasting a roster stacked with this much promise, and Australian junior Proctor leading the charge, there is no reason Duke can’t be National Champions in March.