Duke HC John Scheyer claims transfer portal 'tampering' with all 7 outgoing players: "All seven of them were contacted throughout the season"

Duke Blue Devils basketball coach John Scheyer claimed in a podcast Monday that there was tampering going on with his outgoing players. Speaking on "The Devil's Den: A Duke Athletics Podcast," Scheyer said several players were contacted throughout the season.

Scheyer said the focus in college sports has now turned to who may enter the portal and their own players who might be considering leaving the school. Scheyer said teams are contacting players during the season to get them to transfer, which makes it harder to land players in the portal if you don't tamper.

"It starts with having your antennas up as a staff on who can go in the portal," Scheyer said. "There are a couple of kids we looked at, by the time we saw their names from the portal and reached out, they already had visits set up very shortly after they had commitments, they made commitments and we're talking days in the portal, visit, and then being committed.

"There's tampering all the time, you know. Let me tell you the seven guys we had transfer. All seven of them were contacted throughout the season ... That's the way it goes. That's the era we're in. So you have to just be ready to attack those things and in real time."

It is an interesting comment from Scheyer, who alleged tampering is going on in college sports to try and land players well before they enter the transfer portal.

This past offseason, the Blue Devils lost Mark Mitchell, Jeremy Roach, Sean Stewart, TJ Power, Christian Reeves, Jaden Schutt and Jaylen Blakes. They all left to go to other schools, and Scheyer believed there was tampering with all of them.

Duke Blue Devils HC heaps praise on Cooper Flagg

Although Duke did lose some key players in the transfer portal, it did land the No. 1 recruit in Cooper Flagg.

Flagg was invited to Team USA's training camp for the Olympics, and he had a ton of success, leaving Scheyer excited for Flagg to get to Duke and continue his development.

“The thing I love about him is he wants to be coached, he wants to be pushed,” Scheyer said on 'The Devil's Den' podcast (via DukeWire). “He’s added to our environment, he’s added to the culture we’re trying to build because he’s come in with a chip on his shoulder. No entitlement, he’s been just hungry to work."

Flagg is projected to be the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft.