Duke clinched a share of the ACC regular season crown, and the No.1 seed in the ACC Tournament, with a dominant 77-51 win over Virginia on Saturday afternoon at Cameron Indoor.
Jon Scheyer couldn't help getting a little introspective about the journey for this year's Blue Devils. This was not a team expected to be this good. Led by 5-star recruit Cameron Boozer, they were expected to be pretty good, but nobody thought they'd be the best team in the country.
And following the blowout win over No. 11 Virginia, which came a week after Duke took down Michigan on a neutral court, that's exactly what the Blue Devils have proven to be.
The best team in college basketball.
And while Boozer is the National Player of the Year front-runner for a reason, Scheyer credits Duke's decision to double-down on its own roster after last season, a rare move in today's Transfer Portal era, where they could have pursued more proven players.
"We're unique in the fact of how we've done it," Scheyer said of Duke's roster-building strategy. "Our staff was incredibly determined to be back in this position this year. You can go about it one of two ways: you can either double down on the guys that've been in your program and guys that are committed to you, or you can go elsewhere.
"I think one of the best decisions we made was doubling down on the guys in our program."
Year over year improvement for Duke's returning players has been a catalyst
Duke only landed one player out of the Transfer Portal last offseason. That player - Rice transfer Ifeanyi Ufochukwu - was lost with a season-ending injury after playing just five games.
Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba II, who both played small roles on Duke's Final Four team as freshmen, have made major strides in their second seasons in Durham.
Evans jumped from 13 minutes per game a year ago to 27 minutes per game this year, and doubled his scoring average from seven to 14 points a night.
Ngongba was a backup big last year. His sophomore leap has been even more important. He averaged four points, three rebounds, and half a block per game last year in just over 10 minutes. This year, he's anchoring the Blue Devils at the five and averaging 10.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in over 22 minutes a night.
Maliq Brown, Caleb Foster, and Darren Harris have also made year-over-year strides for Duke.
Scheyer's approach may differ from most in this era. He'll continue organically building his teams through high school recruiting and roster retention, while supplementing from the portal when he needs to.
It might not work perfectly every year. But it's clear that Scheyer and his staff's decision to focus on bringing guys back rather than pursuing more seasoned replacements was the right call this year.