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Former Blue Devil Jaylen Blakes has been waiting for a while to make his transfer decision and now he has: he’ll be at Stanford.
It’s not a Cardinal sin – bad pun, yes – to transfer within the conference anymore. Christian Reeves, Jaden Schutt and TJ Power all have left for other ACC schools (Clemson, Virginia Tech and Virginia). And of course Blakes did a tremendous job at Duke, graduating in three years.
It’s hard to keep track of who still has a bonus year left.
New Stanford coach Kyle Smith said this about Blakes: “Adding Jaylen Blakes to our team enhances us on many levels. He will provide us with athleticism and experience in the backcourt. Offensively he has the ability to score and distribute by getting paint touches with his strength and quickness, while also keeping defenses honest with the ability to knock down 3-pointers.
“Defensively, Jaylen gives us a defender with a pit bull mentality. He has the ability to guard the ball which is vital to setting any defense. Being a college graduate, we will lean into his maturity and leadership. He has been a great role model and leader as a true student-athlete in prep school and college, and his knowledge and experience of the league will be helpful as we transition into the ACC.”
Offensively, as we saw at Duke, Blakes has some limitations. But his defense is brilliant and he caused chaos on a regular basis.
We really hate to see most players leave but it’s a bit different for Blakes. He didn’t leave because he wasn’t getting playing time and when he got in, he played his ass off. We thought very highly of him and we will continue to do so. It just won’t be any fun seeing him with a different team.
