ACC's Top Rookie Just Wants to Win
Jim Sumner, GoDuke The Magazine
This story originally appeared in the 14.7 Issue of GoDuke The Magazine – February 2023
You probably have a favorite Kyle Filipowski play or two. He’s seven-feet tall, so some of them are big-man stuff, rim-rattling putbacks or clearing the defensive boards and starting a Duke fast break. Or maybe it’s a rainbow 3-pointer, like the one that gave Duke crucial separation late in their win over Wake Forest. There was that play early in the second half against North Carolina where he caught a 70-foot pass from Tyrese Proctor at full speed and finished with a graceful layup between two Tar Heels, the kind of play big men aren’t supposed to make.
Or it could be one of the numerous times he’s thrown his 230-pound body onto the floor to bloody his knees, wrest the loose ball away from an opponent and win a possession.
Filipowski leads Duke in scoring, rebounding and steals and is second in blocks and minutes per game. He’s a skilled, athletic post, a future NBA lottery pick. He wins games with his size and his skill.
But he also wins games with intangibles, with an infectious work ethic that cares about only one stat, the score on the board.
“He just doesn’t stop,” coach Jon Scheyer says of his precocious freshman.
“I just want to work my butt off,” Filipowski adds.
Filipowski comes from a basketball family. Father Dave played at Slippery Rock. Mother Becky (Hagerdorn) played at Long Beach State. Uncle Randall Hagerdorn played at Boston College, aunt Beverly Hagerdorn played at Dartmouth. Kyle’s twin brother Matt is a freshman at Harvard, where he’s coached by former Duke star Tommy Amaker.
Filipowski was born in Middletown, N.Y., a Hudson River town about 75 miles from New York City. He began playing formal basketball in elementary school and played high school ball locally and then at Fordham Prep in the Bronx before transferring to Wilbraham and Monson Academy in Wilbraham, Mass.
He also reclassified back to a sophomore, not for academic reasons — he’s an excellent student — but for basketball reasons, a chance to be coached by Mike Mannix, better competition, more exposure. He calls his first season at Wilbraham and Monson his “breakout year.”
Filipowski also joined the New York Rens AAU team, a team operated by former Duke player Andy Borman.
He picked up his nickname “Flip” in high school. He said it was partly a reference to his surname but also a “flip the switch motto. Turn it up a little bit. Embracing the moment.”
By his senior season he was considered one of the nation’s top prep players. He committed to Duke in the summer of 2021 and told ESPN “at the end of the day, they just checked all of the boxes for me. They are a national-level team, my academics were very important to me and I had a good feel for the environment and campus.”
Because of his reclassification he wasn’t eligible for the McDonald’s All-America team.
However, he was named to the Jordan Brand Classic game and the U.S. roster to the Nike Hoop Summit.
Filipowski was solid but not dominant. He had eight points and eight rebounds in the Jordan Brand game, eight rebounds in 13 minutes in the Nike Hoop Summit.
But future Duke teammates Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively II were ranked higher and many pundits pegged Filipowski as a complementary player going into the season.
Go get it Flip! ???????????? @kylefilipowski pic.twitter.com/3IblpPwPvh
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) November 22, 2022
And even a freshman as talented as Filipowski can have difficulty adjusting to the intensity of the college game.
Filipowski had his Eureka moment in practice. Earlier this season the rumor started floating around that Scheyer kicked Filipowski out of practice.
“Just to set the set the record straight,” Filipowski explains, “we were doing this drill and I wasn’t putting in my full amount of effort. And (Scheyer) got on me about it. But he didn’t tell me to get out. I was just overwhelmed. And so I actually left myself, because I just needed to blow off some steam. But that was because him and some of the guys were on me on the drill because I wasn’t putting in the effort I should have been.”
Captain Jeremy Roach was one of those teammates.
“He’s been a sponge. I was on his case early, for sure. But I just want him to be great. I knew what he was capable of. I watched him in high school. I knew he had to put in that work because I knew guys were going to come at him. To see the strides, to see him progress to where he is now, is night and day.”
Filipowski said he learned his lesson.
“But I mean, just from the summer to where I’m at now and like the strides I’ve made, that’s all because of my coaches and my teammates. If they haven’t been on me since day one, I wouldn’t be where I am now. Just with the confidence they’ve had in me, for always believing in me, and just all of us starting to become a family too. That’s really what I give the credit for with my personal success and I’m going to repay the favor by going out there every game and diving on the ball for the loose ball. Always putting in my effort.”
Whitehead broke a bone in his right foot in August and missed three months, Lively missed a month with a calf injury, Roach suffered a serious toe injury.
Duke needed Filipowski to dominate early and he answered the call. He had double-doubles in his first three games, including 17 points and 14 rebounds against Kansas.
He was the first freshman in program history to start his career with three consecutive double-doubles.
His teammates picked up on that motto. After Filipowski led Duke to a 54-51 win over Oregon State in the Phil Knight Legacy tournament with 19 points and 15 rebounds, Roach said, “When he wants to flip that switch and be relentless on the glass and do what he needs to, that’s when he’s really in kill mode.”
He was in kill mode when Duke went to Boston College. Duke led the Eagles by 14 points before an offensive drought. Boston College led 64-63 with less than 15 seconds remaining. Ryan Young missed inside for Duke. Filipowski was blocked out by Boston College big man Quinten Post but simply willed himself to the offensive rebound. He drew the foul, made two foul shots and Duke escaped with a 65-64 win.
Filipowski’s analysis of that sequence speaks volumes about his approach.
“I’d probably just say something that the coaches have been asking of all the whole team lately is just to compete. Every possession, never take a play off. And especially with the way the last minute went, which is how hectic it was, that’s just kind of what we needed. We just needed to stick together and fight through to the end of the clock.
“I was just in the right position at the right time, you know, fighting for the loose ball and I just had to block the crowd out, the noise out, just focus on getting the win for my team because I know that’s the most important thing. All those talks about freshmen not being able to hit free throws in clutch times or anything, that didn’t really bother me at all, because we all have our own opportunities to create our own stories.”
His best game came against Pittsburgh, where his 28 points and 15 rebounds fueled a 77-69 win after Duke overcame a double-digit deficit.
Pitt coach Jeff Capel was impressed.
“Obviously, a monster on the glass. He’s very, very talented. I saw him a lot in high school but he’s gotten so much better since he’s been here. And tonight he was the best player on the floor.”
As has been his habit, Filipowski deflected praise to his teammates,
“Yes, I did play well but it was just so fun to be with my brothers out there. A bunch of other guys stepped up great at key moments of the game, too, and I was just feeding my energy off of them. We all were just reciprocating the energy. We just wanted to get this. We were starting to take things more personal after all the battles we’ve been through, and I think that showed tonight.”
The dominance continued; 18 points and 14 rebounds against Clemson, 17 points and 14 rebounds against Miami, 29 points and 10 rebounds against Virginia Tech.
Filipowski was named ACC Rookie of the Week eight of the first 13 weeks, including the first four. He has to be considered the leader to become the ninth Duke player in a dozen years to be named ACC Freshman of the Year.
Not every game has been at that level. Opposing teams have started prioritizing Filipowski and terms like “physicality” and “punch first and keep punching” have become applicable. He has struggled in some games.
The biggest struggle came in Charlottesville against Virginia and their swarming pack-line defense. Filipowski grabbed six rebounds. But he ended up scoreless and found himself at the center of a national controversy when his end-of-game attempt to break a 58-58 tie was called a Virginia foul, then wasn’t a foul, then the ACC released a statement that it was a foul and he should have been awarded two free throws at the end of regulation. But it was too late to change anything.
That play literally added injury to insult. Filipowski sprained an ankle and underwent days of therapy before playing three days later against Notre Dame. Not surprisingly, he led Duke to a 68-64 win with 22 points.
“He’s such a difference maker for us, the attention that he gets,” Scheyer said after that game. “He’s resilient. He’s been a guy since day one of this summer, it has not been smooth sailing. He has had his ups and downs, and he’s taken coaching every step of the way. He continues to work and he just wants to win.”
As the regular season winds down and the postseason looms, Kyle Filipowski is going to continue to write his own story around that one simple narrative — helping his team win.
Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707. To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call 336-831-0767.