It's been a terrific offseason for Duke, engineered by head coach Jon Scheyer. As expected, Duke lost its two leading scorers from this past season in Cameron Boozer and Isaiah Evans to the NBA Draft, but its to other draft candidates - Patrick Ngongba II and Dame Sarr - both elected to return to the Blue Devils in 2026-27.
Scheyer complemented the roster by signing the nation's No. 1 high school recruiting class (again), while landing one of the top overall players in the Transfer Portal in Wisconsin guard John Blackwell.
It's hard to do any better than Scheyer has done so far, and Duke has rightfully been seen by pundits as one of the big winners of the offseason as a result.
But even as a projected Top 3 team in the preseason, that doesn't mean Duke doesn't still have question marks that Scheyer will try to find answers for between now and when the season tips off.
1. Will Duke have enough 3-point shooting around John Blackwell?
In terms of proven three-point shooting ability, Duke has Blackwell, rising senior Caleb Foster, and a whole lot of question marks.
Dame Sarr projects to take a leap in that department, but he knocked down only 32.3% of his attempts from long distance as a freshman. Projections are never guaranteed, and the proof will need to be in the results.
Duke wasn't a bad three-point shooting team a season ago. The Blue Devils connected on 34.7% from three, but that was good for only 132nd in the country out of 365 Division I teams.
The addition of Blackwell is a huge boost. He shot 39% at Wisconsin a season ago and should benefit from even better spacing in Scheyer's system. But without a dominant post player like Boozer on this team, Duke projects to be more of a perimeter-focused group in 2026-27. They'll have to shoot at a significantly better clip for that to work and remain as one of the most efficient offenses in the country.
2. Can Patrick Ngongba II stay healthy?
Part of the reason that Patrick Ngongba II returned to Duke for his junior season is that he's still pretty banged up and wasn't likely going to be able to participate in many pre-draft workouts. His injury late in the season was costly for Duke, with the Blue Devils taking a significant backwards step defensively without him on the floor in the ACC Tournament and the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Even when he returned for the second-round matchup against TCU, it was clear he wasn't near 100%. Scheyer took steps to have better depth on the interior next season, adding Belmont's Drew Scharnowski via the Transfer Portal and signing Cameron Williams, Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, and Maxime Meyer in the high school class.
But Williams and Boumtje Boumtje might not be ready for many minutes at the five, and Meyer is more of a long-term project who is potentially in line for a redshirt season. Scharnowski is a good player who plays 100 miles per hour the entire time he's on the court, but Duke would give up significant size with him at the five instead of Ngongba, just like it did this past year when Boozer or Maliq Brown had to slide up a spot.
3. Will Duke's freshmen grow up quickly?
This projects to be arguably Scheyer's deepest team yet in Durham. Before you even get to his talented freshman class, you have six proven veteran rotation players in Cayden Boozer, Caleb Foster, John Blackwell, Dame Sarr, Drew Scharnowski, and Patrick Ngongba II.
But if Duke wants to reach its ceiling, the 5-star freshmen in Cameron Williams, Deron Rippey Jr., and Bryson Howard need to live up to their billing. Boumtje Boumtje is the ultimate wildcard in the group; he'll play his entire freshman season at just 17-years-old, and has a ways to go physically to be able to hold up against the bigs Duke will face.
The talent of the freshman class is enormous, but that talent translating immediately is never guaranteed. Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer in back-to-back cycles spoiled Duke fans. Freshmen rarely make things look as easy as those two did.
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