The world of Duke told from the inside by a guy who has breathed basketball since birth: after following his father Ettore around the world, Filippo Messina has taken his own path and is now in his fourth year at Durham, where he studies economics and works on coach Jon Scheyer’s staff.
Here is his story, from Cooper Flagg’s mother to Dame Sarr’s arrival, from unnecessary suitcases to the missed title, from Jared McCain’s songs to his father’s age.
From Russia to the United States passing through Spain, it’s hard to define your first 20 years as normal. Tell us about your childhood.
It was a very, very beautiful experience; sometimes it was hard to leave friends and home, but for me after a while it became almost normal to change cities. And it was also very nice to be somewhat involved in my father’s work, then as I grew older, increasingly involved. In San Antonio, I used to watch the training sessions, trying to understand what they were doing. One year at the draft, I did a couple of mini-reports for my dad who involved me even when I was young, and recently in Milan, my dad always gives me something to do. He values my opinion a lot and, even if obviously on some things he may not listen to me, he talks to me about all topics and I really appreciate that.
Your father is a friend of Dean Smith and other great Tar Heels coaches, and he calls himself a North Carolina alumni. How did he take your decision to go to the big rival, Duke?
It’s linked to North Carolina; he was friends with Dean Smith, but in my opinion, he doesn’t really see himself as a Tar Heels fan. He cares a lot and feels connected because he was there, worked with Dean Smith, and it was a very stimulating experience that helped him grow in many ways, but he’s not a true North Carolina fan; in fact, over the years, we’ve watched more Duke games. When I got accepted at Duke with the opportunity to work with Scheyer, he was very happy because it’s a great opportunity for me. Sometimes he teases me, calling me ‘dukie,’ which is a somewhat negative nickname for those who go to Duke, but he was very happy.
You arrived in 2022, a year that Duke will always remember because it marked the end of the Coach K era. Did you get to meet him?
Coach K still frequents Duke; he rarely came to practices, especially at the beginning, because he wanted to give Scheyer space. But sometimes he’s seen in the gym, and I met him a couple of times. He’s very good with names; I hadn’t even shaken his hand, and he said, ‘Ah, Filippo,’ which impressed me a lot — Coach K knew my name… I was sick for a week last year, and he texted me asking how I was, which felt amazing. He’s always been very kind to me.
You started working right away with coach Scheyer; how did it go?
It’s really a great experience working with him. In 2022, it was his first year as well, and there was immediately a good relationship because we were all at the start of something. He’s a very young but brilliant leader, has a lot of energy, and has empathy with the players, which I think helps him a lot. He uses us in various ways, starting from the court for individual workouts since the goal here is to do workouts as live and game-like as possible, so many managers are needed on court to help. We also work with statistics and videos. Scheyer is young and understands very well all the technological possibilities now available in basketball, which is very important to him.
Speaking of which, having seen both up close, what’s the main difference between college basketball training and European basketball?
There are similarities, but one big difference is that here they are much more creative: for example, we were training before the Final Four, and during the 5-on-5 practice, music was blasted in the gym to simulate the noise there would be during the game when you can hardly hear yourselves, to help get used to it. That’s one example, but we do many things like that. Also, here there’s much more individual work: in Europe, staff are smaller, there’s less equipment, and less time for it. Here we have 12 student managers, 3 graduate assistants, and 6 coaches who can use two courts with three ball machines… Olimpia has 7 coaches and is well-staffed compared to many Euroleague teams, but there’s still a big difference.
You are now Head Student Manager for the Men’s Basketball program: you said there are 12 of you. Explain this structure and your duties.
There’s a hierarchy: in the first year, you do the messier jobs like cleaning the court, inflating balls, making sure everyone has water, Gatorade, or any specific potion a player uses. During practices, you’re always on the court and can be part of a drill, maybe marking Jared McCain. In later years, you have fewer of these responsibilities and do more work with stats and videos; in the last two years, you travel with the team, so you also handle all the equipment. We carry a ridiculous amount of stuff, some of which we never even need, and then you help during games with some statistics. Every year you work towards more responsibilities and learning more real basketball.
Filippo Messina in allenamento con Jared McCain
One useless thing you always bring on every trip and never use?
We have this big suitcase with 6 small chairs inside, which in theory are supposed to be used during timeouts on the court so you’re not sitting on the bench next to a fan who might see what you’re drawing and tell the other team, but we have never used them, and they’re really heavy.
Speaking of atmosphere, you play at Cameron Indoor, where the crowd is really close: what’s it like to play there and how’s your relationship with the Cameron Crazies?
It’s a legendary place, with so much history inside that I think they’ll never build another court like it. It’s really special, it’s small, and there’s insane noise with the Cameron Crazies jumping around dressed strangely, making a lot of noise and helping us a lot. In these three years I’ve been here, we’ve lost very few home games. It’s great to play there except when a player’s parent behind you yells ‘pass the ball to my son,’ that happens even in America.
I Cameron Crazies
Name a parent, come on.
No, I can’t, but speaking of parents, Cooper Flagg’s mom is really number one. She’s the only one who can say to Cooper Flagg, ‘you’re an idiot, start playing right now.’ Like that, she’s the number one.
You have seen many players now; let’s pick one per season, and you give us an adjective for him. Starting with Dereck Lively.
I’d say imposing; when he’s on court you really feel his presence, he’s a player that gives you confidence. He has his limits, but with him you know your defense is there, your pick and roll is there. He’s imposing off the court too; he makes a lot of noise. Even when he was injured at the start of the season, he yelled at his teammates; everything he said was loud. He has this impact, very noisy but positive.
And Jared McCain?
He’s a very lively guy; as you see on TikToks when he sings and dances, he’s really like that. He doesn’t create another persona for videos; that’s his strength. When we were down 10 points, he looks at you with his smile and says ‘now we come back and win.’ Even in his individual workouts, he always had music blasting, knew all Drake’s songs word for word, it’s his way to have fun and feel confident. He also has a work ethic like few others, in preseason he was at the gym at 6 am every day and often even during the season.
And finishing obviously with Cooper Flagg.
Truly impressive, I have no adjectives for him. I’d say leader because when we were behind or in tough games, he was always there, maybe not in the last play because in all the ones we lost something happened — he couldn’t shoot or score — but before that moment, he was always there, and we were there thanks to him. As a person, number one, he was also a kid since he arrived at 17; he was a perfectly normal kid but from tip-off had a huge impact on the game. Maybe he didn’t score but he put everyone in rhythm, always defended the best opponent, never lost a scrimmage in preseason, and indeed we got to the Final Four and were one step from winning.
With him, it seemed like this was the year to win the title after 10 years: leading by 6 with less than a minute left against Houston, what happened?
The Final Four experience was amazing, it’s all a circus; Americans do big things very well and on a large scale. We were in San Antonio, and for me, it was nice to return there. That game was very tough; for us, Houston was the hardest team to face, much older than us, tougher in many ways, physically stronger, so it was really difficult. Even when we were ahead, we didn’t feel confident; every basket was hard, and that last minute was really ugly and cruel. Nobody expected it; even at 30 seconds left, we were worried but the game was ours. It was very hard also to leave the court between two rows of Houston fans; it wasn’t an easy walk.
Filippo Messina con il trofeo dell’East Regional
Now a new great freshman class is starting, how does this year’s team look with Cameron Boozer?
We’re starting fresh, Scheyer insists the staff don’t compare to last year’s team, which was one of the strongest ever, if not the strongest ever. We have to start from zero. I like the team a lot; there are many players who can do many different things, so we’re very versatile, able to play small ball or bigger with Patrick Ngongba and Maliq Brown. We have a lot of defense, size, athleticism, and shooting, so we can do very well. For Boozer, it’s not easy coming after Cooper Flagg, but he’s perfect. Maybe he’s not always the one talking a lot; he’s a bit more reserved than Flagg, who was very lively, but he’s huge, can do everything, shoots very well, passes well, knows pick and roll. With him, we can do very well.
And you don’t feel alone anymore: Dame Sarr is the first player born in Italy to wear the Blue Devils jersey. How have you seen him in Durham?
He’s an amazing talent. First of all, he has size; he’s tall, with very long arms, almost an American athlete, incredible. When he sets in defense, there are few like him, and offensively he understands the game well thanks to his experience. He needs a lot of individual work because he missed that in Barcelona, where he played many games and, as I said before, there was no equipment for it. In that sense, he’s a bit behind but the talent is there, he will do very well and has great chances to be a lottery pick. In the end, we get along well; having another Italian at Durham helps both of us a lot when you’re far from home, even just chatting a bit in Italian brightens your day. We talk often; since I came back from vacation, I’ve seen how much he has already improved in just two weeks; he feels good here and is very happy. He’s also very focused on this year, not his future. He told me that in Barcelona there wasn’t so much attention on individual work, but here he’ll do a lot. He’s working on more one-on-ones, which he didn’t do in Barcelona, and the nice thing is he’s good at everything else, as a complementary player, since he has already done that at a high level. Now he needs to take another step and have the ball in his hands more.
Is he starting?
Yes, yes.
Sarr is the flagship name of a wave of young men and women increasingly interested in college basketball: is this a loss for the Italian basketball system or an opportunity you can’t pass up?
There really isn’t a debate: if a Division I team offers you a certain amount of money and the chance to work with them, it’s an opportunity that’s hard to refuse. Also, many say that in Europe, especially Italy, young players don’t get to play, but you have to understand the clubs: if a player isn’t ready to be on the court without making mistakes, it’s hard to put him in when you’re playing against Serie A teams, fighting for playoffs. It’s a very high level in Europe, and it’s hard to throw young players in. Trento did a great job with Niang, Ellis, Spagnolo; now there will be another Niang; they managed it, but it’s very difficult. Also, for clubs, it’s hard to see these kids leave without earning anything; a rule should be created to give clubs some money for developing players. That needs to be considered. But I read people on social media criticizing kids who go to the NCAA, which makes no sense. My dad also said it: a player who has this opportunity should absolutely take it.
“The universities have so much money they don’t know what to do with it,” said Nebraska GM Luca Virgilio. Is that true?
I have an idea of how much money Duke has, and it’s really a lot. Also, the budget given by the university is different from the real budget you have in the drawer, which comes from all the donors, the rich basketball fans. The NCAA has a really important role in setting some rules to organize all this because it’s still not clear what can and cannot be done. Colleges aren’t yet very well organized to manage all this money; they’re slowly gearing up to manage NIL, and Duke wants to create a front office for scouting and administrative tasks.
Filippo Messina con Tyrese Proctor
In our Top 25, we put Duke at number 6 — too harsh or the right position?
For the start of the year, it’s the right position. We have a lot of potential but it’s a young team that will struggle a bit at the start. Number 6 is fine for now, but I expect a top 3 and also a number 1 during the season.
Not only Duke: you work with the NBA on the Basketball Without Borders project. What’s that experience like?
Working with them has been a wonderful experience. I had the opportunity to live at the NBA office in New York and attend Academies with a very high level. I worked with international prospects all over the world; obviously, the European campus was at a much higher level than the others, and it helped me with my work at Duke because I saw some prospects that maybe in a couple of years I can bring to Durham. Of Italian players, I met Cattapan and Thomas Acunzo and saw them doing very well; I really liked them. I hoped to see Niang’s brother but he had passport issues. Among foreigners, the Slovenian Stefan Joksimovic (whom we talked about here) is definitely one to watch for us as well.
Is this the kind of work you want to do in the future?
I’d like to work in a basketball team’s front office, NBA, college, or Europe — I don’t know yet; it depends on the opportunities. But scouting and putting a team together is the job I want to do when I grow up.
Let’s finish with your father: you ‘forced’ him to support Duke and get a tattoo for the title; what else do you think you’ll make him do in the future? For example, to coach in the NCAA?
Well, he thought about it a little last year, there was a half opportunity, but I don’t think he’ll do it and I definitely don’t push him to; with recruiting and now all the money involved, it’s really a hard job, and at his age, I think it’s better not to (he smiles). I hope I can get him to do another tattoo; that was born from a bet at the start of the season: ‘if we win the title, we get a tattoo,’ but really, I only did it because I wanted a tattoo and this was the way I convinced him. I’d say I might make him get a hair fade; I think he needs to modernize his look.
Your father deserves an immediate right of reply; there are great coaches in the NCAA much older than him, from Tom Izzo to Rick Pitino.
No, he’s not too old (laughs). But on the fade, I’ve been trying for years now.
