Will Avery’s basketball career comes full circle as he joins Duke basketball staff

Twenty-five years after he left Augusta, Georgia, to begin his Duke playing career, Will Avery returned to his hometown Friday and took another important step in his basketball life.

Avery joined Duke’s coaching staff as an assistant coach, which allowed him to attend the Nike Peach Jam event just across the Savannah River in South Carolina at the Riverview Park Activities Center.

He’s familiar with the surroundings, having played in the inaugural Peach Jam as a prep star before his one season at Duke and the NBA.

“It was actually really surreal driving over here,” Avery said Friday, sitting courtside watching a game featuring Isaiah Evans, one of Duke’s committed players for the 2024 class. “Now my first job. It’s one of the first events I get to cover. So it’s been great. I’m enjoying the ride, and I’m looking forward to get to work and help us continue to hang banners.”

The job Avery is filling is one of two new positions on the Duke staff that are available this summer due to an NCAA rules change. College basketball teams are now allowed five assistant coaches, up from the previous three. Coaches in the new positions, like Avery, are allowed to work with players on the court in practice and individual work sessions, but they are are not allowed to recruit on the road

Off-campus recruiting is only allowed by the head coach and three other assistant coaches. In Duke’s case, that’s normally head coach Jon Scheyer and associate head coaches Chris Carrawell and Jai Lucas.

But the Blue Devils are down one recruiting assistant since Amile Jefferson left the Duke staff last month to become an assistant coach with the NBA’s Boston Celtics. The search to fill his job is ongoing.

So Avery is allowed to recruit on the road at Peach Jam via an NCAA waiver because Duke has not yet hired Jefferson’s replacement.

Back in 1998, he left his hometown of Augusta to join the Blue Devils. He helped them reach the NCAA Tournament championship game in 1999 before joining three other teammates as first-round NBA Draft picks the following summer.

After playing in 142 games for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves in addition to a career overseas, Avery retired as a player in 2012. He returned to Augusta to start the Will Avery Basketball Academy and said he got the itch to coach full-time while one of his daughters played middle school basketball.

“I started watching some practices,” Avery said. “And I was like, ‘Man, I gotta jump in here.’ I started to really enjoy it, enjoy the relationships that I was building with the kids and everything.”

Scheyer, who sat next to Avery watching Evans play at the Peach Jam on Saturday, was glad the NCAA created the new opportunities that provided a place on the coaching staff for Avery.

“The opportunity to have Will Avery here is incredible for us,” Scheyer said. “He understands our program at its highest level. As an NBA Lottery pick in 1999, he knows the goals of our current players and achieved many himself.”

In between getting the urge to coach and landing the Duke job, Avery had to finish up the college degree he started in 1998. He returned to Duke in 2019 and completed his African-American studies degree last spring.

Mike Krzyzewski, Avery’s coach as a player at Duke, allowed him to work on the basketball staff in various roles over the last four years while he was going to school. Mainly, Avery joked, he had one job.

“Rebound,” Avery said, referencing his role in player shootarounds. “I wasn’t able to do much rebound in the past. But I got to observe and learn a whole lot from these guys.”

Scheyer said Avery was impactful, even in that limited capacity, by his example.

“He has been a tremendous asset for our staff over the last several years after returning to Duke to complete his undergraduate degree,” Scheyer said. “And what a testament to return 20 years later and achieve that. I’m thrilled for Will and his family and excited to have him as an assistant coach.”