Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer and his staff reeled in yet another top-ranked recruiting class, this time a five-deep bunch consisting of four composite five-stars and one top-tier four-star. Plus, the Blue Devils managed to retain six scholarship talents from a 2024-25 squad that won 35 games en route to winning the ACC Tournament title and reaching the Final Four.
Even so, Duke still sits outside the top 10 in ESPN college basketball expert Jeff Borzello’s projected top 25, which he updated on Monday morning. The Blue Devils remain at No. 12 in Borzello’s eyes, appearing second among ACC programs but five spots below the No. 7 Louisville Cardinals.
Borzello forecasted the Duke basketball starting five for Scheyer’s fourth season at the helm, somewhat surprisingly leaving out the Blue Devils’ dynamic rookie from Italy in five-star wing Dame Sarr and one of the Boozer twins in five-star point guard Cayden Boozer.
The projected starters are junior guard Caleb Foster, sophomore guard Isaiah Evans, freshman forward Nikolas Khamenia, freshman forward Cameron Boozer, and sophomore center Patrick Ngongba II. Perhaps the most surprising member of that projected lineup is Khamenia. That doesn’t mean he isn’t worthy; rather, it’s the fact that the former California prep has been the one five-star Duke basketball newcomer most often overlooked by national insiders.
Duke tips off its 2025-26 campaign against the Texas Longhorns — absent from Borzello’s top 25 but among his five next in line — in Charlotte’s Spectrum Center on Nov. 4 (ESPN).
