Sports Illustrated’s Men’s College Basketball Preseason Top 25: No. 4 Duke

Through Oct. 31, Sports Illustrated will count down its preseason assemblage hoops Top 25 pinch overviews of each team. Here are nan afloat rankings truthful far.

It’s still difficult to judge that past season’s Duke squad didn’t triumph nan nationalist championship. 

For ample stretches of convention play and moreover into nan NCAA tournament, nan Blue Devils looked unbeatable. Even successful nan Final Four against Houston, Duke was successful power almost nan full way. But 1 crippled slipping distant is nan quality betwixt immortality and disappointment, and that’s what nan Blue Devils knowledgeable pinch a squad that analytically is 1 of nan highest-rated squads of nan 21st century. 

Revenge is connected nan Blue Devils’ minds successful 2025, and while it’s unrealistic to expect moreover much-hyped freshman Cameron Boozer to lucifer what Cooper Flagg brought to Durham, N.C., talent is surely not successful short supply. Duke could conceivably person 3 much NBA draught lottery picks and 5 much first-round picks successful 2026 if things break right. They besides person a bully operation of players pinch acquisition from past season’s disappointment to spell pinch a loaded freshman class. Keeping Caleb Foster, nan team’s apt starting constituent guard, and Isaiah Evans, apt its champion shooter, was huge, and returning a brace of awesome talents astatine halfway successful Patrick Ngongba II and Maliq Brown is besides bully considering really difficult it is to find value frontcourt players successful nan portal. So while Duke whitethorn not person nan expertise to wholly overwhelm teams nan measurement it did a twelvemonth ago, there still mightiness not beryllium a much talented squad successful assemblage hoops than nan Blue Devils. 

PG: Caleb Foster
SG: Isaiah Evans
SF: Dame Sarr
PF: Cameron Boozer
C: Patrick Ngongba II
Key Reserves: PG Cayden Boozer, W Nik Khamenia, C Maliq Brown

Key Additions

The look of nan programme astatine Duke this play will beryllium Cameron Boozer, boy of 2001 nationalist champion and eventual NBA All-Star Carlos. Boozer whitethorn not person rather nan aforesaid NBA upside arsenic chap top prospects Darryn Peterson and AJ Dybantsa, but those 2 imaginable stars don’t person Boozer’s history of elite accumulation and winning. In precocious school, Boozer won 4 authorities championships successful Florida and a nationalist title his elder twelvemonth against apical prep schools that enlistee from each astir nan world while playing for a christianity schoolhouse successful Miami. He won 3 Peach Jam championships, nan highest grant successful AAU basketball. He besides took location a brace of golden medals pinch Team USA. And successful nan process, he has averaged 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds astatine fundamentally each measurement of nan way. His play-to-play effect mightiness not beryllium rather arsenic large arsenic Flagg’s was, but he has a chance to beryllium a ascendant assemblage subordinate and seriously contend for nationalist subordinate of nan twelvemonth honors. 

His copy brother, Cayden Boozer, also joins nan Blue Devils. Cayden’s a much accepted axenic table-setter than nan score-first Foster and could situation for early rotation minutes. 

But nan ceiling of this group is really dictated by which of Duke’s ultra-talented wings emerge. There’s nan aforementioned Evans, who took complete games astatine times past twelvemonth pinch his shooting expertise but has limitations beyond that. Dame Sarr was 1 of nan highest-upside prospects successful Europe processing successful powerhouse Barcelona’s strategy and came to nan U.S. for a payday and chance astatine much accordant playing time. He’s an NBA-level jock pinch elite protect upside but inconsistency arsenic a shooter. And past there’s Nik Khamenia, who has awesome size astatine 6' 8", beardown passing chops and awesome consciousness for nan game. Two, possibly moreover 3 of these guys will apt perceive their names called successful nan first information of adjacent year’s draft. 

Duke’s undoing successful that Houston crippled (and arguably successful its different 3 losses past season, too) was its constituent defender play, not its youth. Duke’s champion lineups past twelvemonth were pinch Sion James, a crippled head and low-usage shooter, connected nan level and Flagg initiating nan offense, alternatively than moving much done Foster who saw his minutes dwindle down nan stretch. Don’t beryllium amazed if Duke does akin things pinch Boozer (on a smaller scale; he doesn’t rather person Flagg’s shot skills) while freeing up Foster to spell score, but nan deficiency of a existent table-setter spot them successful cardinal moments successful half-court discourtesy past season. Could Cayden Boozer yet look arsenic that guy? Possibly, though his deficiency of three-point shooting mightiness create different problems. 

The Bottom Line 

Duke has 1 of nan champion players successful nan state successful Boozer starring nan measurement and a roster pinch arsenic overmuch NBA talent arsenic immoderate squad successful nan sport. There’s a earthy reticence among preseason pollsters to hedge their bets connected young teams for illustration Duke, but what nan Blue Devils did past play proves conscionable really quickly those concerns tin spell retired nan model pinch nan correct unit successful place. This should beryllium nan ACC favourite and a group pinch each chance to trim down nan nets adjacent April successful Indianapolis.

More College Basketball connected Sports Illustrated

Listen to SI’s caller assemblage sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, beneath aliases connected Apple and Spotify. Watch nan show connected SI’s YouTube channel.