Former Duke Standout Believes Blue Devils are Best Team in Country

The 2026-27 Duke Basketball season is a few days from getting started as the team will open up against Army on Monday night. It will tip off a new campaign under Jon Scheyer and the Blue Devils are once again a team that is expected to be among the best in the game. 

Scheyer and his staff have done a great job of building the roster, adding through the transfer portal while also bringing in the top recruiting class. They also return some key players from that Elite Eight team from a year ago. 

While Duke doesn't have a Cooper Flagg or a Cameron Boozer on the roster, this might be Scheyer's deepest roster yet, and that could be a recipe for success. The depth on this team is excellent, as is the talent, and some could argue that their second unit would be around the top 25 itself. 

We still have to wait for the games to be played to see how good they are but they are getting a lot of preseason hype. The latest? From a former Blue Devil.

Jay Bilas sat down with Awful Announcing ahead of the start of the season for an interview and among the things they discussed was Duke. In the interview, Bilas says he believes Duke is the "the most talented team in the country, top to bottom." His reasoning? They have everything. 

Bilas mentions the depth that Duke has, going 10 deep and how they can play in multiple ways.  With their experience and good guards, Bilas believes they can be the top team in the nation. Usually having good guard play and defense is something that separates the contenders from the pretenders. 

Duke has both. 

In addition to that, Bilas mentions that Duke has good shooting as well. We saw that in their preseason wins at Kansas and then a blowout win over Tennessee at home. But is he ready to crown them the No. 1 team ahead of Florida just yet? It's tough to name a preseason No. 1 that you believe can go wire-to-wire and win it. It's very hard to accomplish that.

One thing is for certain, both Duke and Florida will be two of the top teams throughout the year. We will be lucky enough to see them square off this season down in Gainesville for what is one of the most anticipated games of the season.