Subscribe
Follow Us
For much of the 2024-25 season, Duke basketball looked like the best team in college basketball. Jon Scheyer, Cooper Flagg and company backed that up while racing through the East region in the NCAA Tournament with comfortable wins over Baylor, Arizona and Alabama.
The Blue Devils entered the Final Four as a favorite and looked the part for 30 minutes before imploding again at Houston late in the second half. What looked like a national championship team before the year will now be remembered for making only one shot in the final 10:31 of the Final Four game and eventually falling short of its ultimate goal.
This is Duke's second heartbreaking Final Four loss in the last four seasons and the program hasn't won a national championship since 2015. Heading into the offseason, Scheyer's goal will surely be to get back to that point and get the job done, but it won't be easy. The Blue Devils will lose plenty of talent to the NBA and some more to graduation and will have to replace a lot of production in the lineup.
It will be hard for Duke not to take a small step back from the buzzsaw that it was this season, especially in an ACC that will likely be much improved from its diminished 2025 version. However, there is still plenty to look forward to for Duke basketball fans.
Who is returning, departing for Duke?
Key departures: F Cooper Flagg, C Khaman Maluach, G Kon Knueppel, G Sion James, F Mason Gillis
Likely rotation returners: F Maliq Brown, F Patrick Ngongba II, G Caleb Foster, G Isaiah Evans
Unsure about: G Tyrese Proctor
Missing an opportunity to win a championship with a player as good as Flagg is a tough pill to swallow, and things will be even harder next season without him. The projected No. 1 overall pick is presumably off to the NBA after watching some of the worst teams in the pros throw their seasons away for a chance to land him.
Duke also had two other star freshmen that were massive contributors this season and are projected to go in the lottery in this summer's draft. Big man Khaman Maluach had a disaster of a final game against Houston, but he developed into a very good rim protector and an elite shot blocker over the course of the season. Combo guard Kon Knueppel is an elite shooter who has plenty of comfort operating with the ball in his hands and can be a very good offensive player at the NBA level.
The draft stock of both Knueppel and Maluach suggests that they both could be headed to the pros as well. On top of that, starting guard Sion James and backup forward Mason Gillis are both out of eligibility, so Duke has a lot of production to replace.
Tyrese Proctor, the starting point guard for the Blue Devils, is the wild card of this group, Proctor is coming of of a very good NCAA Tournament but a disastrous final 10 minutes against Houston where he failed to get any good looks for the Blue Devils offense and missed a crucial free throw in the final minute. However, he is a big guard who can really shoot the 3-ball, as evidenced by the tear that he went on against Baylor, and NBA teams will love that skill set.
Proctor might be able to improve his stock next year if he comes back to Duke and has a bigger role on a team that won't have the likes of Flagg and Knueppel taking up so many touches, but it is also a big risk. The Australian is a projected late first-round pick at the moment, so he has a decision to make very soon.
Duke will get its crop of role players back next season, which should give Scheyer some foundation to build on off the bench. Reserve big men Patrick Ngongba II and Maliq Brown both project as returners and could be two breakout candidates next season. Ngongba is a good athlete who came into his own at the end of the season while Brown is a great defender who struggled with shoulder injuries throughout the season.
Foster is a transfer candidate after struggling for most of the year and seeing his playing time dwindle over the course of the year, but he would bring back experience. Evans is arguably the most intriguing piece as an elite shooter who showed flashes of great scoring ability as a freshman.
Offseason additions
Article Continues Below
Transfer portal additions: N/A
Incoming freshmen: 5-star F Cameron Boozer, 5-star F Shelton Henderson, 4-star G Cayden Boozer, 4-star F Nikolas Khamenia
Duke hasn't waded into the transfer portal yet this offseason, but most would expect Scheyer to fill out the roster with additions to fill whatever holes Duke has. Similar to James, Gillis and Brown last season, Duke didn't get any stars in the portal, but it got much-needed depth.
The star power on the 2025-26 edition of the Blue Devils is going to come from the incoming freshmen. Scheyer secured commitments from the Boozer brothers, both of whom are the sons of longtime NBA veteran Carlos Boozer.
6-foot-9 forward Cameron Boozer is the gem of the bunch. The Columbus star is the No. 3-ranked high school player in the country according to 247 Sports and should be the star of the show for Duke next season. His brother Cayden is a point guard who can come in and play alongside Proctor or start at point guard if needed.
Duke also got commitments from five-star forward Shelton Henderson, the No. 14-ranked player in the nation, and four-star Nikolas Khamenia. It will be hard to secure a hit rate that is the same as last year's when Duke landed three stars straight out of high school, but the Blue Devils won't be short for talent next season.
Duke's outlook for 2025-26
Any team that is relying on a lot of freshmen for so much production is destined for some growing pains. We even saw that with Duke in 2024-25, as Flagg and company lost a couple of tight contests at the beginning of the season before fully rounding into form.
That should be the case again next season as Duke balances how best to use both Boozer brothers and incorporate the other freshmen into the team. It will help if Proctor comes back and is running the point, but there will still be some things to figure out.
The ACC will also be much tougher next season. Louisville, Miami, Virginia and North Carolina have all improved early in the transfer portal period, and teams like Clemson should also be a threat. Duke will still come into the season as the favorite to win the conference, but it won't be a breeze like it was at times last season.
As far as national title contenders go, Duke can be in that group if Proctor comes back and Boozer ends up being the star that he is billed to be. If it wants to be a true tier one contender, it will need all of the breaks to go its way this offseason.
