Duke basketball roster construction could lead to uncomfortable moments this season
Duke basketball is rolling the dice — not on transfers, not on seasoned stars, but on raw, electric youth. After a year headlined by Cooper Flagg and steady veteran leadership, Jon Scheyer’s latest roster is noticeably thin on experience and thick with potential. With no major transfer additions and only a handful of returning contributors, the Blue Devils are heading into one of their riskiest seasons yet — where growing pains could meet sky-high expectations under the unforgiving lights of Cameron Indoor.
The Blue Devils will have a lot of work to do in the offseason trying to replace its key players
Once again, the Duke basketball team will be entering the season with a very young roster.
A season removed from making the Final Four led by a generational rookie in Cooper Flagg, Jon Scheyer is hoping for some of the same magic this winter but there is a major difference in his roster construction from last season.
While Flagg was joined by a talented recruiting class of Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, and others, the Blue Devils had a major veteran presence in junior guard Tyrese Proctor and transfer portal additions Sion James and Mason Gillis.
This year that is not the case.
Duke did not make any notable additions in the portal and instead attacked the offseason with a focus of retaining players from its roster and did so successfully.
Caleb Foster will be the most experienced player for Duke and he has been through a wild ride during his tenure in Durham. After a promising freshman season, Foster was injured late in the regular season and forced to miss the ACC and NCAA Tournament.
He was expected to be a major contributor during his sophomore season and after beginning the year as a starter, he was relegated to a reverse role on the bench until the postseason where he started to flash some of his potential.
Now, Duke will be relying on him not only to stay healthy but maintain a high level of play through the duration of the season.
The same can be said for sophomores Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba, who showed moments of high-level play during their freshmen season but were not on the floor during the critical moments.
Like always, a lot of pressure will be put on the shoulders of Duke’s talented freshmen, specifically Cameron Boozer, who will be looking to fill the shoes of the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in Cooper Flagg.
It’s very unlikely that the Blue Devils will operate at the same efficiency as last season, which was one of the best in the KenPom era, but that’s not to say they will not, or could not, be an elite team. It just might take a little bit longer for everyone to get on the same page.
