Notre Dame's Riley Leonard 'held his own' scrimmaging the Duke basketball team
01/20/2025 02:01 PM
As Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard made his media rounds prior to Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game against Ohio State, he recalled some of his favorite moments at Duke — not on the gridiron, but on the hardwood.
As a guest on Robert Griffin III’s “Outta Pocket” podcast, Leonard, the Duke transfer, told RG3 and co-host Grete Griffin about whether he could’ve walked on to the Duke basketball team and his late-night trips inside Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“I didn’t necessarily have the handles (to walk on),” Leonard said. “To have the handles you have to be in the gym all day, every day. When I got there at Duke in the summer I was with Paolo Banchero and them, so we used to go to Cameron late at night and hoop, which is dope. I was always trying to sneak in there and play with them boys and see if I could really prove myself.
“That’s one of my biggest regrets,” Leonard continued. “I would’ve hit up Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] my freshman year and just… let me go to layup lines! My jump shot’s broke and I didn’t have no hands at that point, but I can still get up and throw some down.”
When asked if he ever scored against Banchero or the other Duke players, Leonard smiled and said, “Paolo is different… I would hold my own, I’ll put it that way. I genuinely think I’d hold my own.”
Banchero would go on to be the top pick in the 2022 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic, winning Rookie of the Year in 2023 and being named an NBA All-Star in 2024.
Riley Leonard is no stranger to basketball success
Prior to his arrival at Duke, Leonard was a star athlete at Fairhope High School in Fairhope, Ala. The future quarterback received college basketball scholarship offers from Saint Mary’s and the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) before ultimately choosing football as his future. For his career, Leonard scored over 2,000 points at Fairhope and led the team in points with over 20 PPG.
As a senior, Leonard helped guide the Pirates to a 27-2 record and an undefeated 10-0 road mark as the team sailed into the state playoffs. Fairhope’s magical 2001 season would eventually fall in Alabama’s 7A Southeast Regional Final, as the Pirates fell to Auburn High School in double overtime, 54-52, in a game AL.com labeled “an instant classic.”
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