Returning Duke Basketball Starter Gets Honest About His Weight

Accurate weigh-in or not, it's easy to see that Duke basketball forward Mark Mitchell has bulked up.

Nobody at Duke basketball's summer media day on Wednesday expressed any doubt that rising sophomore Mark Mitchell could now weigh 232 pounds, up 12 pounds from last season, as the official 2023-24 Blue Devil roster currently reports.

The 6-foot-9 forward, who averaged 9.1 points and 4.5 rebounds last season before deciding to return despite some projecting him as a late first-round draft pick, looks significantly more muscular. And that's saying something, considering he was far from puny as a Duke basketball rookie while drawing starts in all 35 games he played.

So although Mitchell could have kept folks believing he now weighs what the roster purports, he willingly admitted there's more to that story. The 19-year-old, who often has a touch of innate humor in his mannerisms when speaking to the media, drew many laughs by coming clean.

"I'm actually probably not 232," he confessed. "I had a lot of clothes on when we did that...But I'm definitely a lot stronger."

As for that part about the clothes, they either measured his height with shoes on, for this year's roster shows him one inch taller than last summer, or he had a late growth spurt.

Either way, with all the added bulk and possibly another inch to his frame, there's no reason to think Mitchell, already known as an aggressive player in the paint, couldn't see minutes at the five-spot and more than hold his own down there whenever foul trouble, injuries, or opponent-specific strategy necessitates it.

On that note, what does Mark Mitchell hope to do on the court next season that he might not have been able to do when he arrived on campus last year as a five-star McDonald's All-American from Kansas City?

"Just being more confident, being more assertive, being quicker in my decisions," he told Blue Devil Country. "I think at the end of last year, I started doing that, and it showed. So I think just bringing that into this year and doing it for a whole season will be big for me."

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