Duke basketball’s Kyle Filipowski wins 2024 Tudor Award for media cooperation

In the aftermath of the now-infamous court storming at Wake Forest, Kyle Filipowski did not talk to the media, which is typical for an injured player, not just at Duke but anywhere. After his teammates spoke, the traveling media left the hallway outside the visiting locker room to go into Steve Forbes’ press conference.

When Filipowski walked out and saw Duke sports-information staffers Kyle Serba and Henry Skutt, he asked where the media went. And then he asked them to bring everyone back.

“I want to talk about what happened,” Filipowski said.

And then he did, for almost three minutes.

It would have been easy for him to go to the bus unhindered and leave the discussion of what happened on the court for another day, but Filipowski wanted to deal with it then.

“Obviously that was a big event, what happened, not just for the game but for college basketball itself as a whole,” Filipowski said. “Something big like that happening, I’m sure there were tons of questions and it was all over the news the next couple days. I just felt like it was my job to share my side of the story.”

That was in keeping with Filipowski’s dealings with the media in his two seasons at Duke: An engaging, thoughtful and willing conversant, Filipowski is this season’s winner of the Caulton Tudor Award, which recognizes the Triangle basketball player who is most cooperative with the local media, in honor of the late News & Observer sports columnist.

Filipowski joins former Duke men’s players Matt Jones (2017) and Jack White (2020) as a winner of the award, which is selected by the N&O staff with input from other Triangle media representatives and presented by Tobacco Road Sports Cafe. N.C. State’s Jarkel Joiner was last season’s winner.

From the early days of his freshman year, when Filipowski agreeably fielded questions about sharing time with another heavily recruited big man in Dereck Lively to getting hit in the throat at Virginia Tech to last season’s debacle at Virginia, when Filipowski went scoreless in a loss decided by an officiating error, he has been unfailingly honest and available.

“After tough situations like that, especially losses, you can be like, ‘Forget this, I just want to get my stuff and go,’” Filipowski said. “Sometimes talking about it helps myself, too, to look at the positive side. After having a bad game or a loss there are a lot of good things to look back on and reflect on what we can do better. It definitely helps clear my head.”

As at Wake Forest, Filipowski could have ducked the media in Charlottesville. Instead, he talked at length at his locker with the N&O’s Steve Wiseman and The Athletic’s Brendan Marks. And Saturday, after a difficult loss to North Carolina, he patiently gave his side of the tripping incident with Harrison Ingram.

“In all those instances, players normally aren’t available,” Wiseman said. “But he felt it was important to speak to us.”

It was a banner year for media-friendly basketball players in the Triangle, from N.C. State veteran Casey Morsell to Alyssa Ustby of the North Carolina women to 2022 Tudor Award winner Armando Bacot, who took time to thank the media last week after playing his final home game at the Smith Center.

“I’m just so thankful, I mean, even for you guys,” Bacot said. “Through the tough times and the good teams, y’all have always remained professional and y’all believed in us and just everything y’all do. I’m going to miss this part of it, too. Just being able to see all of your faces when we travel.”

Basketball players in the Triangle have the chance to build those kinds of relationships, with the considerable media attention and open locker rooms after men’s home games at Duke and N.C. State. (North Carolina brings multiple players into a lounge at the Smith Center, which is the next best thing.) That’s unusual in college basketball, where access to players elsewhere is often strictly controlled.

But all three schools have realized that it’s great preparation, not only for the ACC and NCAA tournaments, where all locker rooms are open to the media, but for the next steps in life — whether that’s in the NBA or going professional in something other than sports, as the infamous NCAA promo puts it.

“Coming into college, I wasn’t the greatest with interviews,” Filipowski said. “I mean, granted, I was getting a lot of experience in my senior year of high school, but I still wasn’t the best. I was still a big stutterer, a little anxious, trying to think of the perfect answer. Kind of like a robot. But working with you guys and talking after games, that helped me get a lot more comfortable, more free-flowing,”

At its best, especially in a market like this, that should be a two-way street. When players are comfortable being open and honest, it’s easier for their stories to be told. When that happens, everyone wins.

CAULTON TUDOR AWARD WINNERS

2015 Ralston Turner, N.C. State

2016 Marcus Paige, UNC

2017 Matt Jones, Duke

2018 Theo Pinson, UNC

2019 Torin Dorn, N.C. State

2020 Jack White, Duke

2021 Elissa Cunane, N.C. State

2022 Armando Bacot, UNC

2023 Jarkel Joiner, N.C. State

2024 Kyle Filipowski, Duke

Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at tinyurl.com/lukeslatest to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.

Luke DeCock’s Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports