Surprising Duke Player Named Player of Year Candidate

The Duke Blue Devils are set to open up their 2026-27 college basketball season on Monday night, hosting Army in Cameron Indoor Stadium. 

While Duke's schedule will get tougher as the season goes on, this first week features games in which the Blue Devils should win. It will be good to get a few wins under their belt barring some big upsets. 

But as Duke takes the court, the focus of some will be on talented freshman Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje. The 17-year-old post player was one of the top international players in this past class and joined Duke where he will be a Blue Devil for at least two years. 

Early on in the exhibition schedule, we saw the impact the talented freshman could make with this team. And now, it's not just Duke fans, coaches or local media seeing it. Instead, his potential is now being recognized by the national media. 

Ahead of the season, Gary Parrish, Matt Norlander and David Cobb of CBS Sports put out their predictions for the upcoming campaign. As part of the bold predictions, Cameron Salerno wrote that Duke will have an unlikely National Player of the Year: Boumtje Boumtje. 

He praised the freshman and stated that Duke will have a third straight winner of that award following Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer. He mentions how it won't be John Blackwell, another player earning a LOT of preseason hype including being a preseason All-American by CBS Sports. 

That's pretty bold. 

Salerno's reasoning does make sense though. He believes that Boumtje Boumtje will become Duke's best player this season. If Duke is as good as many believe they will be, then he will have all of the attention that goes with it. That should help his case in terms of winning that award. 

In the season opener, Boumtje Boumtje got the start and played 19 minutes. He scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds, all on the defensive end. He added three blocks and went 6-of-6 from the free throw line. 

The only knock on the big man is that he was 1-of-4 from the three-point line. That will come as time goes on and it's nothing to be worried about at the moment. For Duke, this is a pretty good start for a 17-year-old freshman. 

Duke will be back on the court Thursday night as they host Coastal Carolina in Cameron Indoor Stadium.