When college teams first approached him about the possibility of leaving high school a semester early, Derryck Thornton's initial reaction was one of shock.
"I wasn’t really taking it seriously until later in my junior year," he said. "Some schools contacted me and said I would be eligible to come a year early, so I thought about it but I wasn’t really taking it seriously. After a while, the coaching staff here kind of talked about it more once they knew Tyus [Jones] was leaving."
Jones, the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player, announced his decision to enter the NBA draft April 15. A week later, Thornton committed to Duke and head coach Mike Krzyzewski. The newest member of the Blue Devil backcourt pointed to the opportunity to step in as a freshman floor general and make an impact—much the way Jones did in 2014-15—as a big selling point on leaving school early and heading to Durham.
But Thornton was only able to make things work out because of the high school he attended.
Thornton is a native of Chatsworth, Calif., but spent his last two years of high school at Findlay Prep—which has just 12 students—near Las Vegas. All 12 of those students happen to be very good at basketball and suit up for the Pilots. Three other members of Findlay's Class of 2015 will suit up for Division I programs this year, and the school has produced 10 NBA players since 2010.
Findlay Prep has become a pipeline of sorts for several prominent programs, including Arizona, which landed freshman Allonzo Trier, Nick Johnson and Brandon Ashley; UNLV, which kept Rashad Vaughn, former No. 1 NBA draft pick Anthony Bennett and Christian Wood close to home; and Texas, which benefitted from the scoring prowess of Myck Kabongo, Tristan Thompson and Avery Bradley.
With so many talented recruits under one roof, Findlay Prep eschews the local Nevada competition for a national schedule that sent Thornton criss-crossing the country all winter. Taking on some of the best teams in the country, Thornton found himself in hostile gyms—excellent practice for what he will go through this season as a Blue Devil.
“Most of our games were on the road, so we had a lot of away games," Thornton said. "We traveled pretty much the whole season so I think that’s going to help a lot as far as this season coming up. We had some [home games] but the majority were on the road.... There were only 12 people in our high school, so obviously there was no one else from our high school that came [to home games], but there were some local high school kids that would come and some parents that lived around there.”
Thornton's classes at Findlay were created and taught by teachers at the nearby Henderson International School, a private school for pre-school through eighth grade. At Findlay Prep, Thornton took core class after core class, which allowed him to meet his graduation requirements in just three years.
According to the program's website, Thornton is just the second Findlay Prep player to make the jump to the ACC, following in the footsteps of former Florida State marksman Deividas Dulkys. After making his decision to bypass his senior season at Findlay, Thornton still had to inform his head coach, Andy Johnson, which proved to be bittersweet.
“It was definitely tough. He was excited, but he wasn’t excited at the same time," Thornton said. "He kind of supported it after he realized what the opportunity was.”
But even after committing, there was still work to be done. Thornton remained in Las Vegas during the summer to finish up the last credits he needed to be eligible this season. As a result, he arrived later than the rest of the Duke freshmen in July, but said he started building bonds with his teammates via FaceTime.
Now in Durham, Thornton will be tasked with managing the Duke offense—no easy assignment for a freshman, though Jones made it look so at times last year. Although he skipped his senior year of high school, Thornton is actually the usual age for a college freshman—he said an arm injury forced him to repeat the third grade—and is older than classmates Chase Jeter and Brandon Ingram. But there will still be growing pains.
“It will take time. The physicality of the defense is difficult for a freshman to adjust to," Krzyzewski said after the Blue Devils' Countdown to Craziness event Oct. 17. "Derryck is really good and he will be fine.”
Sophomore Grayson Allen touted Thornton's speed as a difference-maker, calling him a great scorer in addition to his skills as a distributor. But for Thornton, the game begins on the other end of the floor.
"If you score first and then lock down your defender, you’re going to win. It’s not all about offense," Thornton said. "If you could lock down your defender, I don’t care who you’re playing defense against, that’s half of the game. If you could knock off that half of the game, then the other half comes easy.”
From Chatsworth to Findlay Prep to Duke, basketball as a whole has come easy for Thornton. Although he took an unusual route to get here, his moment is officially beginning.
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