The 2024-25 college basketball season was a good one for Jon Scheyer and the Duke Blue Devils. Led by Cooper Flagg, Duke was able to make an impressive run all the way to the Final Four.
Unfortunately, in that Final Four appearance, the Blue Devils blew a lead late in the game against the Houston Cougars and were eliminated from national championship contention. It was a disappointing finish to an extremely good year.
Looking ahead to the 2025-26 season, Scheyer and company have a lot of work to do.
As expected, Flagg decided to leave Duke to enter the 2025 NBA Draft. He is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, which would currently place him as the newest member of the Dallas Mavericks.
Duke, Jon Scheyer Suffer Another Major Setback Due to NBA Draft
Flagg was not the only key player to enter the draft.
Kon Knueppel, who was also a five-star freshman for the Blue Devils, also left the program for the draft. Other Duke players who are leaving for the NBA are Khaman Maluach, Cedric Coward, Tyrese Proctor, and Sion James are also draft prospects.
While Coward did not play for the Blue Devils last season, he was a huge transfer addition this offseason who would have helped replace Flagg and Knueppel.
CBS Sports analyst Gary Parrish has released new early rankings for the 2025-26 season. When it came to Duke, the team was ranked just No. 9 in the nation. That isn’t a bad ranking by any stretch, but it’s not where the Blue Devils would like to be.
“This ranking is based on the Blue Devils returning three of the top nine scorers — specifically Isaiah Evans, Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba — from a team that finished 35-4 and advanced to the Final Four of the 2025 NCAA Tournament,” Parrish wrote. “That core will be joined by a recruiting class highlighted by Rice transfer Ifeanyi Ufochukwu, five-star freshman Cameron Boozer, four-star freshmen Nikolas Khamenia, Cayden Boozer and Sebastian Wilkins and international prospect Dame Sarr.”
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Scheyer did an excellent job with what he had to work with this offseason. He has a great freshman class coming in and was able to secure some talent in the transfer portal as well.
No one knows what to expect from the new version of Duke basketball, but the talent is there for the Blue Devils to win at a high level once again.
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