The Duke basketball program kicked off the 2025-26 season strong with a dominant 96-71 victory at Cameron Indoor in a charity exhibition match over Johnny Dawkins and UCF. It was a sloppy first half for the Blue Devils offensively, as they hit a big scoring drought for the majority of the first half after starting the contest 5-of-8 from the field. After entering the halftime locker room with a 40-39 lead, Duke proceeded to outscore the Knights 56-32 en route to a dominant 25-point win in front of the Cameron Crazies. Duke fans got their first taste of this season's brand new squad, so here are the biggest takeaways following Duke's victory.
4 biggest takeaways from Duke basketball's exhibition win over UCF
1. Duke will be a problem for opponents on the glass
Potentially the biggest strength for the Blue Devils tonight was rebounding. Head coach Jon Scheyer molds his teams with length, and that showed on the glass tonight. Duke out-rebounded UCF 54-41 overall and 18-10 on the offensive side of the glass. Those 18 offensive boards turned into 22 second-chance points, compared to just seven for the Knights. The Blue Devils crashed the boards with purpose and aggression, with seven different guys tallying at least three rebounds.
2. Duke has room for improvement defensively
Duke cleaned it up defensively in the second half, but several instances of miscues and miscommunications led to easy buckets time and time again for UCF. Transition defense was an issue with stopping the ball, as UCF took advantage of Duke sleeping after made baskets by attacking the other end of the floor right away and finding easy layups offensively. There were issues with poor switches that caused issues as well, but nothing of major concern. Duke looked much better defensively all-around in the second half, but the first 20 minutes certainly had their woes.
3.Duke will be a three-point happy team
It's clear after the Blue Devils' first exhibition game that Scheyer wants to take a lot of threes. Duke attacked the basket at a much higher rate in the second half, but whenever a three was available, it was going up. The Blue Devils got off to a hot start from beyond the arc to begin the contest, but went ice cold to end the first half. Duke was much more conservative from the perimeter in the second half, and the depth showed. As a team, the Blue Devils went 12-of-35 (34.3%) from three-point range, with 50% of the team's total shot attempts coming from beyond the arc. Cameron Boozer led the way, going 4-of-7 (57.1%) from the perimeter, but Isaiah Evans expectedly led the volume, chucking up 10 threes while converting on three of them.
4. Cameron Boozer is the real deal
Not that it wasn't expected for Cameron Boozer to be one of the best players in college basketball right away, but no one could've realistically expected this stat line in his first collegiate action. Boozer led the way for the Blue Devils with a ridiculous 33 points to go along with 12 rebounds and four assists on 12-of-19 (63.2%) shooting from the field. After Duke entered the halftime locker room cold offensively, Scheyer showed that Boozer is the guy his team will run through offensively, as the Blue Devils fed him in the paint for the entirety of the second half. Boozer also switched one through five defensively and already looks like one of the most complete talents the sport has to offer.