Duke Star Brandon Ingram Is Coming For That Number One Spot

This feature is part of VICE Sports’ March Madness coverage.

A few days after his 14th birthday, Nick Pagliuca rode around Boston on a duck boat as part of the Boston Celtics’ 2008 NBA championship parade. He was at the TD Garden for the clinching victory over the Lakers, too, a perk afforded to him because his father, Stephen, is a Celtics’ co-owner. The younger Pagliuca understands the organization’s ambitions to win another title, but he was also just glad to be in the parade.

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The family’s team could take a big step in the direction of another championship celebration this June. They have the rights to the Brooklyn Nets’ first round draft choice, which might be among the top selections. If that’s the case, the Celtics could be in position to pick a player whom Pagliuca knows well: his college teammate, Duke freshman Brandon Ingram.

“It’d be cool,” Pagliuca, a junior walk-on, told VICE Sports. “When I come back home, I’d be able to hang out with him. I know he’s a great guy and he’s going to have a great career ahead of him. I think it’d be great if he could be on the Celtics.”

Pagliuca is not alone in wanting to watch Ingram play, unsurprisingly—the versatile 6’9 forward is projected as one of the top two choices in the draft, alongside fellow freshman Ben Simmons. But unlike Simmons, whose brief college career ended with LSU’s embarrassing 71-38 loss to Texas A&M in the SEC tournament on March 12, Ingram is still playing and impressing fans and scouts alike. It is already the consensus opinion that Simmons could be a great player. Ingram is still showing everyone how great he could be.

Ingram returns to the court on Thursday night when fourth-seeded Duke faces top-seeded Oregon in an NCAA West Regional Sweet 16 game in Anaheim. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski confirmed in a news conference last week that Ingram would leave for the NBA after this one year in college, following in the footsteps of recent Blue Devils players such as Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Tyus Jones, Jabari Parker, Austin Rivers and Kyrie Irving.

“He’s having fun, and he’s a beautiful kid to coach,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s what I call a no-maintenance guy. There’s never couch time. There’s never ‘you have your mind on other things.’ He loves basketball. He loves being coached, and he loves being at Duke.”

That Ingram is even at Duke and trying to lead the school to back-to-back national championships is somewhat surprising, considering his strong ties to the Blue Devils’ biggest rival. Ingram grew up in Kinston, North Carolina, the same hometown as former University of North Carolina stars Jerry Stackhouse and Reggie Bullock, both of whom served as mentors for him in his youth.

Ingram’s older brother, Bo, was teammates with Bullock on Kinston’s 2008 state title team and was the state’s co-player of the year as a senior. Ingram also played for Stackhouse’s AAU program, and Ingram’s father and Stackhouse have had a close relationship for years. “He always tried to help me out,” Ingram said of Stackhouse. “He didn’t sway me in any way to go to college. He just always wanted me to be happy.” For a variety of reasons, despite the basketball culture that raised Ingram, that meant Duke.

Kinston coach Perry Tyndall, another North Carolina graduate, said the NCAA’s ongoing investigation of the Tar Heels’ athletics program might have played a role in Ingram’s decision. In May 2015, the NCAA sent North Carolina a notice of allegations regarding alleged academic fraud among athletes.

“When he told people that he was probably leaning towards Carolina early in his recruitment, that’s accurate,” Tyndall told VICE Sports. “I think if some of the stuff hadn’t happened with Carolina, I think very well he could’ve possibly ended up there. But because it did, it definitely changed his recruitment and opened it up.”

Tyndall remembers college coaches flocking to Kinston to watch Ingram, who led the school to four consecutive state championships. As a senior, he was usually one of the tallest players on the floor but played point guard 70 to 80 percent of the time, according to Tyndall. He also spent countless hours at a local recreation center, which his father helped run.

“Brandon wasn’t driven socially on the weekends,” said Tyndall, whose brother, Webb, was a walk-on basketball player at North Carolina. “It was not uncommon for him on a Friday or Saturday night to be at the center with his dad getting up shots and working on his game.”

Since arriving at Duke, about 100 miles northwest of Kinston, Ingram has continued to improve his skills and become stronger. At 190 pounds, he is still skinny, but he is already 20 pounds heavier than he was in high school.

Ingram had some trouble adjusting to the physical nature of college basketball early in the season, but emerged as one of the country’s best players after a brief period of adjustment. As he prepares to face down the Sweet 16, Ingram is averaging 17.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game and is shooting 44.2 percent from the floor and 41.5 percent on three-pointers. He makes more than two three-pointers per game.

“He’s one of the best kids you could find,” Tony Dawson, Stackhouse’s brother and one of Ingram’s AAU coaches, told VICE Sports. “There’s a hidden toughness he has that doesn’t match his slight body. As slim as he looks, he’s a lot stronger and plays a lot tougher than he really looks.”

Ingram’s development is a major reason the inconsistent Blue Devils are still competing. After losing four of five games in January, Duke fell out of the top 25 for the first time since 2007. The Blue Devils then won seven of 10 entering the ACC tournament, where they blew a 16-point second half lead and lost to Notre Dame in overtime in the quarterfinals.

They didn’t look any better early in last Thursday’s first round NCAA tournament game against UNC Wilmington. Ingram’s three-pointer with three seconds left in the first half cut Duke’s deficit to 43-40 at halftime, although the Blue Devils ended up pulling away for a 93-85 victory. When Ingram was on the free throw line in the second half, a few UNC Wilmington fans screamed “Let’s Go Sixers,” a reference to the Philadelphia 76ers that was meant to distract him. Ingram said he didn’t hear the chants, while his coach was simply glad he could coach Ingram for at least one more game.

“He’s a big-time player here, but not nearly what he will be in the future,” Krzyzewski said. “You put 20 pounds on him and a couple more years, and there’s no one like him. I’m not saying he’s the best, but he’s unbelievably unique, and we’ve tried to work with him like that.”

Two days later, Ingram remained composed again when Yale cut a 23-point halftime deficit to just seven points with 11:39 remaining. After a timeout, Ingram drove to the basket and scored on an underhanded layup in the lane to stop Yale’s 15-0 run. He then put up seven of Duke’s next nine points on two free throws, a fall-away jumper in the post, and a three from the left wing. When Yale got to within 67-64 with 41 seconds remaining, Ingram made two free throws that helped clinch Duke’s 71-64 victory. Ingram played all 40 minutes and finished with 25 points, one shy of his career-high.

“We kind of expect that from him,” Duke junior guard Matt Jones said. “For him to do that, I’ve seen it personally time and time again. When he’s himself and when he’s confident in himself, he’s definitely the best in the country.”

Ingram, who won’t turn 19 until September, is continuing to diversify his game. He has always been a reliable outside shooter who can handle the ball, but he showed against UNC Wilmington that he could catch the ball on the perimeter, back up defenders in the post and score over them at the rim.

NBA scouts will be watching Ingram closely on Thursday against Oregon and for however much more of the tournament Duke can survive. They will also be working him out over the next few months, and trying to determine if Ingram may be a better option than Simmons.

“He shoots the ball from anywhere in the gym,” said Dawson, a former Florida State forward who appeared in six NBA games himself. “In the NBA, I kind of think that’s going to be the difference as to why he’ll be more of a sexy pick than Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons is a tremendous rebounder and passer. But in the NBA, you have to be able to score, man.”

Ingram soon will join Stackhouse, Bullock, Dawson, Cedric Maxwell, and Charles Shackleford as former Kinston High School players to appear in an NBA game. It’s a remarkable achievement for a small public high school, and a point of pride in a community that loves the sport. With four state titles in four years, Ingram’s reputation at his alma mater and in his hometown is already secure. And yet there’s still the sense that Ingram is bound for much more than the glory he’s already claimed.

“Jerry had an amazing career,” said Tyndall, referring to Stackhouse. “But if Brandon can stay healthy, I think Brandon could end up having a very, very, very special career.”