Duke is heading into the season with a deeper rotation, three returning starters and the nation’s top recruiting class for the third straight year as it tries to win a third consecutive ACC title in Jon Scheyer’s fifth season. The Blue Devils are leaning into depth more than star power now, and that shift is at the center of their title defense.
That is why Patrick Ngongba II matters so much to this group. He averaged 10.1 points and 5.8 rebounds while moving into a starting role last season, the kind of rise that fits a roster built to spread responsibility rather than hand everything to one player. Duke also opens the year as a top-10 team for the 19th straight season, so the expectation around it is already familiar even with a different cast.
The numbers behind the program remain hard to ignore. Duke has gone 70-7 over the last two years and 42-2 in ACC regular-season and tournament play, and its last seven losses have come by a combined 22 points. That is the standard Scheyer is working from as he tries to extend a run that included last season’s ACC title and NCAA Elite Eight appearance.
The problem is that the Blue Devils are not bringing back the whole engine. Duke returns three starters, but it also lost Cameron Boozer, Isaiah Evans and Maliq Brown from last season’s team. Boozer led the team in scoring, rebounding and assists, so replacing his all-around production is not a small task, even with the roster’s extra size and the No. 1-ranked recruiting class arriving behind the veterans.
John Blackwell’s addition gives the backcourt another proven scorer after he averaged 19.1 points for Wisconsin and was ranked by 247Sports as the No. 3 transfer addition. But Duke’s schedule will test how quickly the pieces settle, with Michigan State, Illinois, UConn, Florida and Gonzaga all waiting before ACC play begins at home against California on Jan. 2.
That sequence leaves little room for a slow start. Duke opens at home against Army on Nov. 2, faces No. 6 Michigan State in Chicago on Nov. 10 and then keeps climbing into a run of marquee games that should show whether the depth can hold up when the opposition gets better. If Scheyer’s team is going to turn talent into another ACC crown, the answer will come early, and it will have to come from more than one star.
