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How Purdue transfer Mason Gillis will help Duke basketball

Purdue transfer Mason Gillis has committed to Duke basketball, Gillis announced Monday in a social media post.

A 6-foot-6, 225-pound veteran for the Boilermakers and the Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, Gillis was a key contributor for a Final Four team. He averaged 6.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 21.2 minutes per game, hitting 58 of 124 shots (46.8%) from 3-point range for the 13th-best percentage in the nation as a senior.

Gillis, who had multiple treys in 23 of 39 games, is the perfect floor-spacing shooter to surround Duke’s talented freshmen. He played at least 28 games in each of his first four seasons at Purdue, finishing each year with a 3-point shooting percentage of at least 35%.

Gillis, who had eight points in a win against Duke as a junior, had five 3-pointers and a season-high 16 points last season in a loss at Nebraska.

Gillis joins Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown as the second player out of the transfer portal to commit to Duke.

Since its Elite Eight loss to NC State, Duke has seen seven players enter the portal. A pair of starters — Jeremy Roach (Baylor) and Mark Mitchell (Missouri) — from that squad have found new homes, but head coach Jon Scheyer is filling in the gaps around his top-ranked recruiting class in the nation.

Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster are set to return as two experienced guards around Cooper Flagg and five other freshmen. With the commitments of Brown and Gillis, Scheyer has three scholarships available.

Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on X/Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: How Purdue transfer Mason Gillis will help Duke basketball