New Walk-on Peters Trades Stopwatch For Sneakers

Courtesy Duke Blue Planet

During his freshman and sophomore years, the only time Duke junior Casey Peters saw the Cameron Indoor Stadium court during games was when some stray drops of sweat needed to be wiped up by he and his fellow basketball managers. But with the Blue Devils' backcourt decimated by departures, Peters' role has changed dramatically going into his junior year.

After two seasons as a team manager, Peters will join the Duke roster as a walk-on guard.

A native of Shrewsbury, NJ and graduate of Red Bank Regional High School, Peters was a local prep standout who received basketball offers from Ivy League programs Yale and Dartmouth but chose instead to attend Duke with the goal of walking onto the team. Although Peters did not make the squad his freshman year, head coach Mike Krzyzewski offered a position as a team manager. Two years later, with only two scholarship guards on the roster, Peters' decision to hang around the program appears to have paid off, as he will now be thrown into the mix with former walk-on Jordan Davidson for backup minutes at guard.

Peters has had success on the Cameron floor before. In the annual game between Duke and North Carolina's managers, he threw down an alley-oop to help Duke's corps win.

Peters is far from the first Duke manager to make the transition to Duke basketball player.  Former manager Ross Perkins saw time in 11 games during the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 seasons, while manager Griffin Tormey suited up for parts of the 2007 season but did not appear in any games.