Evan Bradds spent one season on the Duke basketball staff as an assistant under head coach Jon Scheyer before taking the head coaching vacancy at his alma mater, Belmont, following the 2025-26 campaign.
Before coming to Duke, Bradds spent several years at the NBA level, coaching in player development for the Boston Celtics and Utah Jazz. He was a standout player in college at Belmont, averaging 14.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists a game on 66.7% shooting from the field and 32.4% shooting from the three-point line across his 129 career games with the Bruins.
The 31-year-old was a two-time Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and a two-time All-OVC Tournament Team selection, while leading the NCAA in field goal percentage in both his sophomore and junior campaigns.
Bradds Helped Develop Key Duke Freshman Talent
Coming from a background in player development, Bradds joined Duke at a great time, as Scheyer brought in the No. 1 overall 2025 recruiting class. Scheyer, Bradds, and the rest of the staff spent the year developing elite rookie talent, such as Cameron Boozer, Cayden Boozer, Dame Sarr, and Nik Khamenia.
Now, Bradds will take his talents back to his alma mater, where he will look to keep Belmont consistently competitive in the Missouri Valley Conference. However, he won't forget his lone year with the Blue Devils under Scheyer.
Bradds Grateful for Year With Scheyer
In terms of developing talent, Scheyer is one of the best in the business. He has now coached the National Player of the Year for two seasons in a row (Boozer and Cooper Flagg), while turning several of his commits into future NBA Draft first-round picks.
Some of those notable names include Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, Jared McCain, and Dereck Lively II.
Bradds recently spoke on what he took away from his lone season as an assistant under Scheyer.
"His overall preparedness for every single game was extremely impressive to me," Bradds said. "It was almost like no stone left unturned. Just his overall competitive mindset, you see why he was such a good player and now that he's transitioned to being the head coach at Duke, you see why he's successful… It's something I'll never forget."
This past season, Jai Lucas, another former assistant of Scheyer, underwent his first year as a head coach with Miami. After the Hurricanes went 7-24 overall in 2024-25, Lucas led them to a 26-9 record and a win in the NCAA Tournament in year one.
Bradds will look for that early success as well.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/duke as Evan Bradds Will 'Never Forget' Year at Duke Under Scheyer.