The Duke Basketball program was named a big winner of the offseason from CBS Sports.
The Duke Blue Devils will once again enter the 2026-27 college basketball season as one of the co-favorites. That's become the norm over the past few years under head coach Jon Scheyer.
As Scheyer took over for Coach K, the program hasn't missed a beat in recruiting or finding success. Scheyer has arguably taken the program to a new level in terms of exposure and NIL opportunities as he revealed in a recent interview.
But for the on court stuff, Scheyer has taken Duke to the Elite Eight three times and the Final Four once. Going into this season, the Blue Devils are hoping to get back to the Final Four and attempt to cut down the nets for their sixth time.
And they will have as good of a roster as ever.
Duke is welcoming in the top overall recruiting class for the 2026 cycle as well as a good transfer portal class. That transfer class is headlined by John Blackwell, who brings in some experience in the backcourt.
The experience that Duke will have in terms of returning players will be key, however. Duke returns a good amount of their team from last season, which nearly made the Final Four again. That includes Cayden Boozer, Patrick Ngongba II, Caleb Foster, and Dame Sarr. All four played a key role last season and are expected to do so this season as well.
With practices underway, CBS Sports named its winners and losers from the past offseason, and in one section, Duke was included.
In the "Winner: Retention is king for the preseason top teams" section, the Blue Devils were listed among other teams. Those teams include Florida, Illinois, and UConn, all who return a lot of talent, along with Duke. The Blue Devils will also play all of those teams this season in their tough non-conference schedule.
Cameron Salerno mentions all four of those Duke returnees as a big key to success for the Blue Devils this year. So you can see why they are high on Duke in terms of being a winner in that section.
While Duke doesn't have a Cooper Flagg or a Cameron Boozer on the roster, this could be one of the best rosters Scheyer has had overall in his tenure. The experience speaks for itself especially after how many games they won last season and how far they went in the NCAA Tournament as well.
