David Shumate Sits Down with Ryan Young

DS: Obviously, the Brotherhood is a big part of the story here at Duke. You guys are part of that, and I feel like when I watch teams… Look, it’s not friendly when you go on the road. It’s deafening when you’re playing Cameron, there’s a lot of media attention, a lot of pressure and sometimes it can cause you to grow apart. But more often than not here at Duke, it seems like it causes you guys to grow closer. Is that fair? It seems like it makes you guys come together because it’s a very unique experience to play with Duke across your chest?

RY: Yeah, I think absolutely. I mean, I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know. Being on the outside, I kind of thought the Brotherhood was just a thing they said here. I didn’t grow up a huge Duke fan. I just thought it was a slogan, like every team has a slogan. I got here and immediately understood that it’s the real deal. I remember being here for Coach K Academy and seeing that it’s quite an experience, but you really see like just tons of former players and coaches here.

Then we had Jayson Tatum around in the preseason. We had a ton of NBA guys, Cam Reddish, RJ Barrett, and I was quickly corrected in thinking that that was just a thing. It’s a real deal here and it’s been really cool, more so for the young guys to see those kind of guys come back and play here. It’s been awesome.

Then what you said, the kind of momentum that you get from playing in this program, in this gym is a big deal. I remember I was more so on the other side of things playing in the Big 10. We were a smaller school at Northwestern and we didn’t have the kind of following that some of those bigger schools, the Michigan States and Indianas, and you go and play there and you felt it. It’s being on the other side of things like an 8-0 run in Assembly Hall is hard to play against.  Now playing here in Cameron when we’re on a run you feel it, and it’s a big deal. It’s just awesome to have this kind of program behind you, the history and the fans and the way the community rallies behind the team. It’s special and it makes a difference.