Latest Duke Chronicle Profile: Mason Gillis
All in all, a pretty cool year for the Purdue transfer
One of the really great things about this past season was just how brilliantly Jon Scheyer constructed his roster.
The freshman class was really good obviously - three of them are possible lottery picks - but keep in mind that Scheyer only returned two scholarships players (other than former walk-on Spencer Hubbard). He built a team that had few holes and with an immense amount of versatility.
And with Mason Gillis the subject of the latest Duke Chronicle player profile, Scheyer covered a lot of problems indeed.
Like fellow transfer Malik Brown, Gillis saw Duke as a dream school and after four years at Purdue, he got to spend his final season in Cameron.
His maturity was a huge asset. Gillis was a solid defender who could defend bigger guys and help out on the perimeter too. When the younger players occasionally got rattled, Scheyer would turn to Gillis, Brown and Sion James to steady things.
He was a quiet presence but a critical one. And while we’re not 100 percent sure about this, we can't think of anyone else who can make this claim: Gillis is the first person to play in back-to-back Final Fours for different teams.