The 6’6 guard only played in six games for Wazzu this past season as he dealt with injury, but put his scoring prowess on display in that small sample size. Coward averaged 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.7 blocks a night for the Cougars on 55.7% shooting from the field and 40% shooting from three-point range.
The Fresno, California native began his career at Division III Willamette University and spent 2022-24 at Eastern Washington.
He’s currently ranked as the #21 overall transfer and #8 shooting guard per the On3 Transfer Portal Industry Rankings and is also listed as the sixth-best remaining player in the portal.
Jon Scheyer did an incredible job with the portal last season, bringing in guys such as Sion James, Mason Gillis, and Maliq Brown to bolster his unit on both sides of the ball. With no work having been done by the Duke program as of now in the portal, Coward would be a monster of an addition to bring in right away.Even if the senior ultimately does commit to Duke, it’s still not a guarantee that he will play for the team, as he will thoroughly test the NBA Draft waters before making a decision.The former Cougar has said that his main focus is on the 2025 NBA Draft, but the guard will commit between the Blue Devils and Crimson Tide if he does elect to return to college basketball for the 2025-26 season.
This would be a huge pickup for the Blue Devils next season to add a top guard to start alongside Caleb Foster, and would make Duke’s backcourt next year extremely deep.
Duke has retained Foster, Isaiah Evans, and Darren Harris as backcourt pieces next season, giving the program an experienced guy at the point and some elite shooting off the bench with Harris and Evans. Add in a true scorer with Coward, and Duke would have one of the best backcourts in college basketball heading into 2025-26.The Blue Devils are on the brink of making a huge transfer portal splash
