{"id":85465,"date":"2024-07-11T11:38:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T15:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=85465"},"modified":"2024-07-11T11:38:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T15:38:09","slug":"duke-basketball-preview-reloaded-and-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/11\/duke-basketball-preview-reloaded-and-ready\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke Basketball Preview: Reloaded and Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/coaches\/jon-scheyer-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jon Scheyer<\/a> has done it again, as the Blue Devils are set to dominate. Here\u2019s a 2024-25 Duke Basketball preview as they look to win the ACC. The team is bringing in a fantastic freshman class, headlined by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/14\/cooper-flag-leads-team-usa-to-victory-at-nike-hoop-summit-prospects\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">No.1 ranked overall prospec<\/a>t <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/cooper-flagg-46129443\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cooper Flagg<\/a>. Besides that Scheyer has brought in some solid players via the transfer portal. The conference is wide open for the taking, and Duke looks poised to win it all.<\/p>\n<h2>Duke Basketball Preview: Reloaded and Ready<\/h2>\n<p>Duke\u2019s season came to an end in last year\u2019s Elite Eight when <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/dj-burns-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DJ Burns<\/a> and NC State sent them packing. While every team\u2019s goal is to win the NCAA tournament, a regional final appearance is nothing to scoff at. Still, whether you love the Blue Devils or hate them, fans in general expect greatness from the team year in and year out. Like many coaches in today\u2019s college basketball landscape, Duke Head Coach Jon Scheyer has had to adapt every year with transfers and players going pro. However, Scheyer may be the best college coach when it comes to recruiting. Like Coach K who preceded him as head coach, he understands that a well-constructed roster is the most essential part of a winning team. So, what do you do when half of your roster enters the portal? Well, you bring in some transfers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What Cooper Flagg&#039;s DOMINANCE of Team USA means for Duke and Jon Scheyer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tiUvy7KqYX8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Four Big Transfers for Blue Devils<\/h3>\n<p>The Blue Devils acquired <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/maliq-brown-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maliq Brown<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/mason-gillis-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mason Gillis<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/sion-james-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sion James<\/a>, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/sion-james-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cameron Sheffield<\/a>, all through the portal. Brown is transferring from Syracuse, where he was largely forced to play as a center. Now, with a solid Duke front-court, he can get more minutes as a forward, his preferred position. After playing four seasons at Purdue, Gillis will now be playing at Cameron Indoor for the crazies. The 2023-2024 Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year will surely provide some energy off the bench. James played four seasons for Tulane, where he averaged 14.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in 2023-24. He should be a reliable bench player for the team. Sheffield was out last year with a foot injury. He\u2019s transferring to Duke after four years at Rice but has two years of eligibility remaining. He\u2019ll be spending time at the end of the bench barring any unforeseen injuries.<\/p>\n<h3>Phenomenal Duke Freshmen<\/h3>\n<p>Cooper Flagg is easily one of the biggest names in basketball right now. In fact, he\u2019s arguably the best prospect Duke has ever had, which is saying something considering the great names who have graced Cameron Indoor. Outside of Flagg, the Blue Devils are bringing in <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/khaman-maluach-46139532\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khaman Maluach<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/isaiah-evans-46116361\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaiah Evans<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/kon-knueppel-46115296\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kon Kneupell,<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/patrick-ngongba-ii-46132143\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrick Ngongba II,<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/darren-harris-46127758\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darren Harris<\/a>. Maluach stands at seven-foot-two and 250 lbs and is the number one prospect in this class at the center position. Evans is ranked third in the hyper-competitive basketball state of North Carolina. Kneupell is the top-ranked prospect in his home state of Wisconsin. Ngongba and Harris both attended Paul VI High School in Virginia, where Ngongba is the number one prospect in the state and Harris is ranked third.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FULL HIGHLIGHTS | Cooper Flagg shows TEAM USA he&#039;s NEXT | LeBron James, Steph Curry, Anthony Davis\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ASoYfJMmBF8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Duke Basketball Schedule Outlook<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Duke has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/duke\/basketball\/another-reported-piece-duke-basketball-schedule-5-24\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tough schedule<\/a> in the upcoming college basketball season. Their non-conference opponents include Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Auburn, and Arizona. With four of those five teams being ranked in the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/39895473\/mens-college-basketball-way-too-early-top-25-rankings-2024-25-season\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">way-too-early top 25<\/a>, the Blue Devils clearly have some elite competition they&#8217;re facing. Additionally, they will face George Mason, Maine, and Seattle, three games they are nearly guaranteed to win. Then, for in-conference play, they\u2019ll be hosting <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/02\/acc-welcoming-3-new-teams-to-league\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">California<\/a>, Florida State, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Stanford, and Virginia Tech in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils will play both home and away games against UNC, Miami, and Wake Forest. For in-conference away games they\u2019ll be traveling to Boston College, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Louisville, SMU, Syracuse, and Virginia. The competition will be fierce in the ACC, but Duke is ready to rumble with their reloaded squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jon Scheyer has done it again, as the Blue Devils are set to dominate. Here\u2019s a 2024-25 Duke Basketball preview as they look to win the ACC. The team is bringing in a fantastic freshman class, headlined by No.1 ranked overall prospect Cooper Flagg. Besides that Scheyer has brought in some solid players via the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5164,"featured_media":85543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773],"tags":[3120,48964,861,48981],"class_list":["post-85465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-acc-basketball","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-jon-scheyer"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}