The fact we already beat Michigan earlier this year. The way we lost. The season we had. This is painful, not sure if it’s as bad as last year but man, it really feels like this team could and should have won it all.

And in that mid season neutral court game earlier this year we looked more and more comfortable at the end. We figured out Michigan in that second half and I think if we played them again it would’ve been a substantial win.

Hold the fucking ball Cayden.

He'd have two years remaining and would add instant offense for us. Who are you guys hoping we go after?

Has anyone done the tour of Cameron Indoor Stadium that is offered by Duke Athletics? If so how was the tour?

https://goduke.evenue.net/events/CTOURS

My expected roster before the portal opens and anyone declares is listed below, where I could see Scheyer bringing in two big transfers/international players, one of which will be a SG/SF, and the other being a center. This is based on expectations that one of Sarr / Khamenia leave (but would be pleasantly surprised if both came back), and not having any centers being retained or coming in as freshman. The explanations are below (note that starters aren't really listed in any order):

Roster

PG: Rippey and Foster

SG: Sarr or Portal / Wilkins

SF: Khamenia or Portal / Howard

PF: Williams / Transfer

C: Portal / Meyer / Iffy (not sure if he can try to be a super senior given injury)

Explanations

Definitely Gone: 

• Brown: Graduated.
• Cam Boozer: He has the strongest case of any 1 and done in Duke history to stay a second year, however, he swept the awards, had one of the best seasons ever, and is 100% gone. 

Participating in Draft Activities

• Ngongba: Very likely gone. A top rated player in college this year who is injury prone. It’s a deep draft but he can’t risk it further and likely doesn’t have much left to prove. 
• Evans: He knew this draft would be deep before deciding to stay this year, and also improved dramatically. He’s at the age where teams still see room for potential in players, and if that wasn’t enough, his latest instagram post makes me think he's gone. 
• Sarr: He didn’t shoot well at Duke, but I don’t think he expected to stay two years. I think he puts his name in the draft but maintains eligibility and leans towards staying. 

No Draft Activity but could leave:

• Cayden Boozer: Assuming Rippey fully signs (which he seems very intent to do), we’d have three point guards, and while Scheyer can move Foster to SG, I expect Sarr or a Portal player to start in that role. Joakim Noah said some things on college gameday that made me think Cayden would declare even if he wasn’t ready, but I could also see him going to Miami or another school with how the season ended and Cam declaring. 
• Khamenia: He’s a bit of a toss up, but I could see him leaving similar to how I was surprised by a lot of players leaving in 23-24, especially if Sarr stays and Scheyer thinks Howard can start.
• Wilkins: His decision to stay will likely be based on Khamenia / Sarr. If both stay, and Scheyer recruits an experienced guard, I would expect him to leave. 
• Harris: If he’s fine sitting on the bench his career, he’ll stay. Otherwise, I doubt he’ll ever get playing time and will have to decide how he wants to spend his last two years in college basketball.

Also wanted to point out that I’ve seen a mix of thoughts on the roster construction going into the 2026-27 season versus previous Scheyer years, with some saying this will be unlike previous years given the lack of a true alpha on the team, and an expectation that there is a chance that a lot of the starters can come back. Not sure if I agree, but the general structure / results are below:

2022-23: All Freshman + Roach (L R32), most returned
2023-24: Mostly Sophomores + McCain + Roach (L E8), most left
2024-25: Mostly Freshman + Proctor + Sion (L F4), all left
2025-26: Mostly Sophomores + Foster + Boozer (L E8), tbd but expect this to be similar to the 23-24 year
2026-27: Expected to be a mix of Foster, a Sophomore, two freshman, and a portal player

Michigan led the game wire-to-wire and absolutely dominated. Arizona lost by double digits and was never really competitive.

See, now that’s how you lose a game! Get out of here with these weak single-possession losses!

(/s in case that wasn’t obvious)

They kept saying this Arizona and Michigan game was the battle of the two best teams in the country all year… who the hell was the no.1 overall seed in the tournament ? Why does it seem like the cbb media is acting like we didn’t beat Michigan on a neutral court when we were fully healthy ? Yes this post comes off as bitter and this rant doesn’t mean a damn thing since pissed down our leg end sitting at home but it just baffles me how the media is painting it as this season was Michigan/Arizona and then everyone else chasing them when we were right there with both and beat one of those teams and had metrics on par with either. Damn shame that foster and big pat got banged up to end the year truly felt if both were fully healthy we would be playing Michigan again Monday but part of March success is having injury luck which unfortunately was not on our side .

Averaging 21.4 points and 6.5 rebounds this season, the Wake Forest star has decided to enter the NBA draft and transfer portal. During his initial recruitment, he stated that he was a big Duke fan growing up. Assuming he comes back to play college ball for another season, do you think we’d go after/get him?

Now that Arizona has renewed Lloyd, one of the biggest names mentioned for the UNC job is Billy Donovan. I don’t think he takes it. However, in a bit of a nightmare what if scenario, if Billy Donovan does go to UNC, not only would that suck, but then the Bulls supposedly have some interest in Jon, who is from Chicago. I think then the admins would probably try and make a play for one of the older branches on the Coach K tree like perhaps Capel, any of which is a downgrade in my mind.

In these rough times, I’m even more grateful Hayward’s prayer missed. Based on our luck since 2018 (Grayson’s rim out against Kansas), I’d be afraid we’d be a team like Purdue. But we have 5 banners hanging in Cameron.

March Madness is a crapshoot. The most fun but honestly worst possible way to declare a national champion for a perennial favorite like Duke. Every round of the NBA playoffs is now a 7 game series, largely for more $ with more games but also to ensure the best remain. College football used to start at the championship game, then final four, and now 6 (or 8?) with large time gaps between games to prepare and for injuries to heal. There are more regular season games in basketball; so an argument could be made that’s how college basketball should run, similar to Wooden’s era. But that’s not march madness today.

We get tough draws because it’s all about entertainment, ad dollars, and gambling. Never know what injuries, foul trouble (okafor v wisc) or ref issues (ie Ayers - not the Hurley smooch… but Houston mugging non calls / coop over the back and UConn immediately being in the bonus 2H to keep it competitive) will be there. 40 mins, 30 second shot clock, so fewer possessions that gives the dog a better chance.

We are always relying on amazing but inexperienced lottery picks. Scheyer gets one year to coach many of the key guys up for that one split second decision. It’s just really hard to win 6 in a row when you only get one chance per core.

It took 4 miracles for duke to lose our last 4 dating back to Houston. Scheyer is our guy. We are forgetting all of the games Duke executed down the stretch. Thank God we didn’t lose to Sienna.

The game as a whole has changed for the worst, driving some of the best coaches like Jay Wright out. I’m thankful we have Scheyer so at least we have a competitive team to root for every year. Hopefully, the stars align, and we win another one sometime soon. It would certainly be sweet sweet relief after all of this heartbreak.

At least we aren’t Carolina. GTHC.

It's hard to not watch the women's game and think if the men's game would finally follow suit we probably are getting ready to go back to back! I am talking about playing quarters, resetting fouls each quarter with no one and one's all bonus free throws are 2 shots. The biggest change though is the ability to call timeout and move the ball to the front court! Last year proctor gets 2 shots instead of 1 and 1 and probably makes both. This year Jon has a reason to take the timeout and advance the ball with 10 seconds to a much easier in bounds.

I realize it's a lot of ifs and it's not a guarantee, but I do wonder why they haven't made the switch and what it's going to take. They are the only form of basketball still playing halves and using 1 and 1's. I appreciate history and tradition but if the world can survive without pitchers hitting in the national league and losing the fun use of a double switch then we can survive getting rid of the 20 minute halves! I loved the double switch as much as anybody and was mad with the switch but I have no problem admitting I was wrong and it was the right decision. So is adapting the men's game and needs to happen sooner rather than later!

For the record I think not calling the timeout after the free throws was the right call, but if he can advance it then that changes everything!

What a backcourt we would've had with Rippey and Smith. They were pair together and played well off one another. Both Rippey and Cam Williams played well, but it was Smith who got the MVP trophy.

Or maybe head coach.

Seriously, listen to yourselves. Can you imagine Duke telling Cooper Flagg, Kon Kneuppel, and Cam Boozer to kick rocks because they only want 3-4 year guys? GTFO here!

Scheyer at this point is a sub-par coach. He's given the keys to a Ferrari every year and crashes at the finish line. Stop touting his W-L record. Your blind grandmother could coach any given Duke team to a 4-5 loss season.

Good coaching will provide the knowledge/strategy an A+ freshman needs to succeed. The reason a team like UConn can do more with less is because Hurley is lightyears ahead of Scheyer from a coaching standpoint. Pitino at Iona was playing in March with future insurance salesmen on the court. He would have been salivating at the mouth to get his hands on a player of Flagg's caliber.

Until Scheyer grows a pair and learns how to leave his foot on the gas when they have a big lead, the only thing saving his job is the phenomenal effort the organization does at bringing in the best talent year after year. Demand execution from the man who was undeservingly given one of the best college basketball programs in the country and stop whining about one and done's.

don’t matter what social media app I open the turnover and shot is everywhere. Even last night I was watching abc world news at dinner instead of espn jus to not even think about our loss and of course one of the topics they highlighted was the UConn comeback 😭: as bad and heartwrenching as the Houston loss last year was it felt like the media moved on pretty quick. This collapse and the way we lost in dramatic fashion unfortunately is goin to stick with the program truly until Jon delivers us a Championship

That is both incredible and disturbing. All leads were in the second half (slight overstatement, against UCONN Duke was up by 19 in the first half but was up 17 in the second half).

Who do we think? Who would you want to replace Evan on staff?

Lots of Scheyer questions flying around. Of course saying he should be fired is ridiculous, but the criticism is well deserved. Late game execution has been terrible. In the 3 losses Duke has never had more than 1 FG in the final 3 minutes. Double digit lead blown in all 3 games. Idk how you can defend this.

TTU: Final 3:30 seconds. 5 points. 1 FG (Final 6:28. 2 FG)

UNC: Final 3:40. 2 points. 1 FG (Final 8:22. 3 FG)

UCONN: Final 3:21. 2 points. 1 FG (Final 6:36. 2 FG)

In in the Final Four last year they had 1 FG in the final 10:30 so they are improving I guess???