This is why Jeremy Roach is such a a joy.
Roach isn't exactly Nolan Smith, Kyle Singer, or [negative description of the behavior of] Grayson Allen, but once in a while we still get a great 4y player.
2020-21 was awful, not because we failed to make the NCAAT, I think, but because as in 1994-95 the team wasn't really as bad as its record and kept losing close games over and over. Approximately ten possessions going better would have earned that 2021 team roughly a six seed in the NCAAT. And in the lack of continuity department, from 2020, you'd already lost Cassius Stanley who was electrifying but had no business going pro early (33 career NBA games and seems to be done). So in 2021, Jalen Johnson just straight up quits midseason, and Roach's backcourt mate DJ Steward who has no NBA prospects whatsoever goes pro (still hasn't even had a cup of coffee in the league), and Tapé, Brakefield, and Coleman III all transfer. Steward may be the most ridiculous early entry in Duke MBB history, but even Matthew Hurt, who was the best player on that 2021 team and left as a sophomore, has only played 55 minutes in the NBA. 2019-20 and 2020-21 saw a raft of early entries and the only guy who has a steady 2024 NBA job is Tre Jones. Watching guys go pro who are good enough to play in NBA is digestible, but watching everyone leave just to end up on a G-league bench or Israel or Philippines or some place is dispiriting.
Out of that muck emerged Duke's most recent "last four year starter ever." And despite some health hiccups Roach has markedly improved, numbers up in every column and .462 from three, .860 foul shots, A/TO over 3 for the third consecutive year. He's probably gonna end his career with around 1500-1600 points, which doesn't get you a banner but is absolutely nothing to sneeze at because it gets you into the top few dozen scores in the history of one of the top half dozen programs.
He's been here for the most recent trough, for the most recent and only Final Four since Obama, for the dizzying highs and Carolina-inflicted sewer lows of that 2022 season, and for the installation of the replacement of the best coach in the history of men's college basketball. He is the bridge from Krzyzewski to Scheyer. He came back for all of this, three times, when people decided they'd rather go ride a bus in the G-league or transfer to Oklahoma or Ole Miss or some dang place.
College sports does blow now, but that throws into greater relief how amazing it is to enjoy the services of a guy like Jeremy Roach. Jascha Silberstein (1928-2004), long the principal cellist of the Metropolitan Opera, once quipped "every time somebody dies, they call him the 'last of the Romantics.'" Jeremy Roach may not be the very last great or near-great four year player for Duke MBB--maybe there will be one, or two or three more guys. But he's already got a statue outside Cameron in Throatybeard's mind.
