In the four seasons that Jon Scheyer has been head coach of the Duke Blue Devils, the program has been able to put out one of the best lineups in college basketball. Thanks to recruiting and landing players out of the transfer portal, Duke's roster is expected to be excellent every year.

That includes the 2026-27 season.

Coming off another Elite Eight appearance, Duke is looking to reload once again for the upcoming season. They did lose Cameron Boozer and Isaiah Evans to the NBA as well as Maliq Brown who is out of eligibility. But they have landed another stellar recruiting class. And a huge transfer portal pickup has the attention of at least one college basketball analyst. 

On a recent episode of the Field of 68 show, Rob Dauster was discussing the teams he think will be on top again next year. Dauster mentioned to Jeff Goodman how certain teams should be favorites because of their additions in the portal.

That included Duke. 

"I think Duke keeping all of their core pieces around and then getting John Blackwell is a huge headline," Dauster said.  "We can talk about all the winners of the transfer portal, but the real headline winners of the offseason, to me, are that Florida, Duke, Illinois, UConn are running this thing back."

Blackwell is coming off an impressive season at Wisconsin, averaging 19.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game for the Badgers. That made him one of the top overall players in the transfer portal. 

While Duke is bringing back some production and welcoming in a strong recruiting class, other teams are also doing the same. That includes UConn who rallied back to upset the Blue Devils as well as Florida, a team that was stunned in the second round of the tournament by Iowa. 

The storyline for Duke this season will once again be if Scheyer and this team can get over the hump and not only go back to the Final Four but cut down the nets in April to win it all.