What will be the ceiling and the floor for the Duke Basketball program this season? ESPN makes their prediction.
The Duke Blue Devils are preparing for the 2026-27 college basketball season and as expected, there is a lot of hype surrounding Jon Scheyer's team.
Following a tough Elite Eight exit in which they blew a 19-point lead to UConn, the Blue Devils are hoping to get back to the Final Four. Under Scheyer, they have found success by reaching the Elite Eight three times and the Final Four once. However, the losses and how they happened are what really stands out to those in the national media.
But this season provides another opportunity for the Blue Devils and again they will have one of the more talented rosters in the sport. Going into this season, Duke is already being ranked in the top three on various publications' preseason polls and they are expected to be one of the top teams in the AP and Coaches polls when released within the next month.
As practices are underway, ESPN has released an article that predicts the floor and ceiling for each Atlantic Coast Conference team. They have Duke as the favorites, ranking them No. 1 in the conference for the preseason.
ESPN predicts that Duke's ceiling is a first-place finish in the conference, 37 wins and a national championship. That makes a lot of sense seeing what Duke's roster is going into the year and the talent that they have as well as the coaching staff that they have.
As for the floor, ESPN predicts the floor to be 29 wins, a second-place finish and an appearance in the Sweet 16. However, if that happens for Duke this season it would be a big disappointment.
Duke is a program that expects to win the national championship going into every season, and rightfully so. If they don't win it, it's basically considered disappointing and a failure for their fan base as well as a lot of the media.
What was very interesting in the article is that ESPN believes Scheyer is under pressure this season. They cite likely not having a Wooden Award Winner like he did with Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer for the first time in a few seasons and the fact that the NBA could be calling soon. Would Scheyer bolt for the NBA if Duke has a disappointing year? It's hard to tell. But with rumors swirling that the Dallas Mavericks were interested this offseason, it may not be out of the question.
Time will tell how these predictions hold up.
