The Transfer Portal officially opened for business eight days ago, and Duke, despite posturing that Jon Scheyer would be aggressive in the portal this cycle, has stayed completely quiet.
Duke has been linked with some top transfers, but nothing concrete has borne fruit. Instead, the only activity so far has been the departures of Darren Harris and Nikolas Khamenia. The Blue Devils are still awaiting NBA Draft decisions from Cameron Boozer, Isaiah Evans, Patrick Ngongba, and Dame Sarr, with the former two expected to declare and the latter two expected to return, at least for now.
But Duke has some work to do in the portal regardless. And through the first week, Scheyer has been content to sit back and watch it all unfold. That reluctance has led to another ACC rival closing ground, and perhaps even overtaking Duke in the ACC hierarchy for next season.
Pat Kelsey and Louisville have not been patient. They've been aggressive from the jump. And that aggression led to early portal commitments from Oregon guard Jackson Shelstad and Kansas big man Flory Bidunga. Bidunga was Duke's top target in the portal, but they were never even able to get him on campus before he committed to the Cardinals.
Now, on Wednesday, Louisville added another top portal target with Arkansas transfer Karter Knox committing. With that came the promise of another win coming for Louisville, according to a noteworthy college basketball insider:
Louisville is the early favorite to hang the offseason banner. Would not be shocked if they got another one here very soon.
— Trilly Donovan (@trillydonovan) April 15, 2026
Louisville is winning the offseason while Duke stands pat and does nothing so far
Duke fans are justifiably getting restless. The Blue Devils are working to try to land Wisconsin guard John Blackwell, who would certainly change everyone's tune. But that's a lot of eggs in the basket of a prospect who recently took a trip to UCLA, and is considering others like Illinois, Louisville, Arizona, and Alabama.
Blackwell doesn't plan to commit until early May, which means Scheyer could be waiting for quite a while before getting a definitive answer on his top target. That's a risky game to play, especially considering that Duke is likely losing quite a bit of scoring punch.
If Boozer and Evans both declare for the draft as expected, that's Duke's two leading scorers from this season and over 37 points per game to replace. Blackwell would be a good start in replacing that scoring, but a swing and a miss on him and this offseason could start to tilt toward disaster for Scheyer and company.
That Louisville is performing so well only makes it worse.
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