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Duke Star Denies Chasing $1.5M NIL Bag In Transfer Portal

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Duke guard Jeremy Roach reacts to a call on the floor.

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Duke guard Jeremy Roach entered the transfer portal this offseason, hoping to find a new home for his final college basketball season. Some believe he’s chasing a bag in the process.

Rumors are now circulating social media that his next commitment will garner a seven-figure price tag. The Blue Devils star provided his input on the narrative Thursday night.

Roach shut the speculation down, though he might wish it was true!

“Man, I wish,” he responded to a post about his supposed transfer portal value.

The initial rumor seemed to spark in a Discord segment led by popular college basketball social media account Trilly Donovan. The anonymous insider is privy to certain information given his sources, and he’s often seen dropping college coaching tidbits even before the national media.

In this most recent conversation, a $1.5M NIL number was thrown around for the player who set career highs in scoring (14 ppg) and assists (3.3 apg) this past season.

Roach also has the option of entering the NBA Draft, which potentially gives some bargaining power. Still, he’s expected to be a second-round choice, if selected at all, so that may not play a huge role in negotiations.

We’ve seen similar claims this offseason, most recently with Wisconsin guard AJ Storr. Storr, like Jeremy Roach, entered the portal while also maintaining that NBA option.

Some suspected that he was asking for $1M in NIL cash to make a college commitment, and if those demands weren’t met, he wasn’t afraid to walk.

When all was said and done, he committed to Kansas – though his NIL deal isn’t public – with the Jayhawks being his seventh high school or NCAA program over the last seven years.

Jeremy Roach will have a number of suitors.

The front runner at this point appears to be Baylor, though others are in the mix, too. Kansas star Hunter Dickinson was seen recruiting Roach to Lawrence, looking to add even more star power to the roster.

Other teams of note include St. John’s, Kentucky, and Arkansas.

Wherever he ends up, he should make an immediate impact by securing a starting role – and he’ll get paid like it!

How much that NIL deal ends up being is yet to be determined.