Ahead of the start of the Blue Devils' season Monday, our beats are here with season predictions, players to watch and the biggest questions for this team:
What will Duke’s record be?
Dom Fenoglio (25-6): From a talent standpoint, Duke has its best roster in the Jon Scheyer era. And while I am not in the camp that believes teams led by freshmen can’t succeed, I do foresee some growing pains for this young squad. Particularly early in the season, the Blue Devils are bound to have a few off shooting nights and lose winnable games — at Louisville and at Georgia Tech are two early games that worry me. Still, I think Duke will finish strong and be well-positioned to win the ACC should it take down North Carolina twice.
Rodrigo Amare (27-4): I am fully onboard the Duke hype-train. The Blue Devils boast talent and depth at every position on the court. Despite losing four starters over the offseason, Scheyer has perfectly constructed this roster to surround superstar freshman Cooper Flagg with both experienced veterans and dynamic young recruits. Barring any major injuries, I expect Duke to consistently find itself at the top of the AP poll and be one of the favorites to win it all come March.
Abby DiSalvo (26-5): The Blue Devils will spend most of their season tallying wins, thanks to a frontcourt loaded with fresh talent and a backcourt with reliable experience. Some games are bound to slip through the cracks, especially when Duke faces traditional powerhouses early in the season, but I predict that the young roster will find its rhythm quickly. Watch out for a slew of tough road games against Arizona, Kansas and Louisville, but don’t rule out a hot season finish and potential ACC win.
Ranjan Jindal (25-6): The nonconference slate is evidently difficult, and I do think the ACC will be an improved league top-to-bottom. My one question is how well this team will play on the road, and we will get an early indication at Arizona in late November. I think this team is good enough to win more than this, but with the unpredictability of college basketball, I’ll go with six losses.
Caleb Dudley (26-5): I have the Blue Devils largely handling business in nonconference play, exacting revenge on Arizona and picking up big ones in the Champions Classic and ACC/SEC Challenge, but dropping a neutral site game against Kansas over Feast Week. In conference play, I predict the Blue Devils dropping one game at home late in the season to a talented Wake Forest group, and dropping three more on the road to finish the regular season with five losses.
Sophie Levenson (27-4): I can see the Blue Devils faltering against Arizona and Kansas, the first because of the Wildcats’ home court advantage and because Caleb Love seems to enact some sort of curse on Duke whenever he meets it. Kansas just looks threatening this season, and being in Las Vegas — on the other side of the country and in a new arena — won’t help Duke. Though there will inevitably be some bumps in the road, I’m optimistic, largely because I think this group already looks like a team on the court, which is often the toughest hurdle to jump for teams rife with transfer and rookie talent.
Rachael Kaplan (24-7): No matter Duke’s ceiling, it’s always going to drop an extra one or two in the ACC that it probably shouldn’t have. The nonconference slate is stacked as well. As illustrious as the incoming talent is, it is still a team composed of six freshmen and the unknowns that follow them. Though the Blue Devils could in theory take every game, I think everyone’s expectations need a little bit of a buffer.
Andrew Long (26-5): I agree with what everyone who’s bullish on Duke’s chances has said. I also agree with Rachael that this team will drop a couple random games, especially given how brutal the Blue Devils start the year. So I’m predicting somewhere in the middle — a nonconference game or two swings away, as do some ACC contests. But with a roster this loaded with freshman talent, two steady-as-can-be returners, three under-the-radar transfers and depth the Blue Devils haven’t seen in years, I think this team has too many answers and too much firepower to falter more than a few times despite its schedule.
Who will be Duke’s MVP?
Cooper Flagg: It had to be said. Expectations of the freshman are sky-high, but his play through both exhibitions hints that he can live up to them. National media has taken the bait; he’s on four preseason All-American teams. On paper, the hype is real. He has the physicality, the athleticism and the pure talent. The biggest question for Flagg is his age. The jump to college, even for a player who was on the 2024 USA Men’s Basketball Select Team, is still a transition. Even Jared McCain took a month or so last season to really get his feet underneath him. Flagg has all the tools to be the best player in college basketball, but he needs to make a quick adjustment to the pace and intensity of the new environment. If he can jump into the spotlight without hesitation, this title is his to lose. -Kaplan
Kon Knueppel: This midwestern machine simply has a shooting stroke for the ages. Choosing an MVP on this roster is near-impossible, but I think Knueppel has a chance to stand out on every box score this season. He possesses an explosive kind of energy, one that he channels into speed on the court and precision from the arc. Notice how in Duke’s exhibition against Arizona State, the freshman barely left the court; Scheyer benched Flagg more than he sat Knueppel. And he did it all: He stole the ball twice, put up 19 points, grabbed five rebounds and passed four assists, marking him as a team player as much as a solo star. We haven’t had much time to see Knueppel in action, but when we do, I’m confident it will be quite the phenomenon. -Levenson
Who will be Duke’s most underrated player?
Tyrese Proctor: It feels somewhat ridiculous to include Proctor in discussions of most underrated players, as he has had first-round hype since arriving on campus two years ago. Still, it feels like Proctor’s lukewarm sophomore campaign has caused pundits to overlook him in favor of the abundance of talent elsewhere on Duke’s roster. While that sentiment is fair, I think Proctor has the talent and experience to be the best player on the court at any time for the Blue Devils. I feel Proctor is the most dangerous Duke player with the ball in his hands; his combination of passing, ball handling and shotmaking separate him from Flagg, Knueppel and others, in my opinion. While he did struggle with efficiency at times last season, he averaged 11.2 points on 50.7% true shooting over the team’s final 10 games — including his lackluster Elite Eight performance. Proctor will be the maestro at the helm of the Blue Devils’ offense, and I think he has the potential to contribute just as much as a scorer. - Fenoglio
Maliq Brown: At ACC media days, I had one clear takeaway from Scheyer’s comments: Maliq Brown will be an essential contributor to this year’s team. Blue Devil fans will remember his 26-point performance in Cameron Indoor Stadium last season, with 11 field goals and a triple. Brown played center for Syracuse at just 6-foot-9, and he held his own on the defensive end. He is a great disruptor with his long reach, and deflects a number of passes. I also think Brown’s biggest contribution could be on the glass. The Culpeper, Va., native has a knack for the ball, averaging 7.2 rebounds per game. Whether he serves as a backup to Khaman Maluach or plays in the starting lineup doesn’t matter in my opinion, because he should play valuable minutes all season. - Jindal
What is Duke’s biggest question?
Can a freshman-led team still win championships in this era of college basketball?
No team starring multiple one-and-done talents has won it all since Duke did back in 2015. Some fans may point to the emergence of the transfer portal as the cause of this trend, but even before the portal, the success of teams like Villanova, Virginia and Baylor seemed to demonstrate that experience and cohesion were more conducive to winning than elite freshman talent. Scheyer hopes that surrounding the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation with key returners and experienced portal additions will propel the Blue Devils to their first title in a decade. -Amare
A counter to Rodrigo’s question — how effective will its upperclassmen be?
We sort of know what to expect with an overload of freshman talent (lots of points, a few head-scratching losses, mostly), but this is the first time in my memory such an elite class of rookies is partnered by two certified starters and a stable of starting-caliber veteran transfers. I wouldn’t be shocked if one or two of those transfers (Gillis, James or Brown) find their way into Scheyer’s preferred starting five alongside Proctor and Foster for big games, especially to remove the inexperience question from the equation. Don’t get me wrong — the freshmen will still need to pull their weight, but how far this team goes in my opinion rests on how well its non-freshmen are able to back them up. -Long
What nonconference matchup are you looking forward to?
Kansas: Duke has just five games for tune-up before it faces Kansas, the top team in the AP preseason poll. The Jayhawks boast an experienced roster — including Wisconsin transfer A.J. Storr and returning 7-foot-2 center Hunter Dickinson — that makes the Blue Devils look comparatively green. Add in the fact that Duke plays Arizona in a tough road match four days prior, and the game against Kansas will offer an interesting look at the Blue Devils’ ability to adjust on the fly. Depending on the final score, the Nov. 26 matchup in Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena will be a critical early-season moment in which Duke either finds (or loses) its footing and momentum. -DiSalvo
Auburn: Last year, Duke took an unfortunate road loss against what turned out to be a middling Arkansas team in the inaugural iteration of the ACC/SEC Challenge. This year, the Blue Devils get to return to their home turf, hosting what should be a stout Auburn squad. Bruce Pearl is a great coach, and the Tigers possess a NPOY candidate in Johni Broome. The matchup between Broome and Flagg should be tantalizing, and Cameron is sure to be rocking for a likely top-25 matchup in December. -Dudley
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Rachael Kaplan is a Trinity senior and a senior editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Dom Fenoglio is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Ranjan Jindal is a Trinity junior and sports editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Sophie Levenson is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Rodrigo Amare is a Trinity sophomore and assistant Blue Zone editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Abby DiSalvo is a Trinity sophomore and assistant Blue Zone editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Andrew Long is a Trinity senior and recruitment/social chair of The Chronicle's 120th volume. He was previously sports editor for Volume 119.