College Basketball Analyst Believes This Could be Duke's Best Roster

The 2025-26 season didn't end the way the Duke Blue Devils wanted it to. Entering the NCAA Tournament, Duke had just two losses on their resume. 

They won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and conference titles, en-route to a No. 1 seed in the tournament. And for most of their Elite Eight showdown with UConn, Duke was the better team, until the Huskies rallied from 17 points down to stun them. 

It was a roster that many felt was national championship good. However, they fell short and now going into 2026-27, they have to set their sights on this season and what they can accomplish. 

Right now, Duke is considered one of the top three or so teams in various rankings. They should be at worst a top-five team in the preseason polls as Jon Scheyer has put together another impressive roster. 

But how good can they be? One college basketball analyst thinks this could be the best roster under Scheyer so far. Jon Rothstein was talking about the ACC recently and brought up how the conference revolves around Duke this season, making a bold claim. 

"When I look at the ACC for 2026-27, it revolves around a team from Durham, North Carolina. This could be Duke's best team yet under Jon Scheyer. That's not hyperbole," Rothstein said. "Duke is not going to have a player the caliber of Cooper Flagg like it did two years ago or Cameron Boozer like it had a year ago. Both players won the national player of the year award in their respective seasons. But I firmly believe, looking at Duke's roster this season, this could be the best team yet under Jon Scheyer."

While Duke did lose Boozer as well as Isaiah Evans and Maliq Brown, they return a lot of talent. Cayden Boozer, Caleb Foster, Dame Sarr and Patrick Ngongba II are all back and they welcome in a top recruiting class as well as a really good transfer portal class. 

As Rothstein mentioned, they don't have a star player like a Flagg or Boozer. But they have some really talented pieces that should work well together.