Promises made, promises kept by Jon Scheyer this offseason.
The Duke head coach vowed that he would take a more aggressive approach in the Transfer Portal this offseason, and the addition of Wisconsin star guard John Blackwell proved he was serious.
Coming off back-to-back heartbreaking NCAA Tournament collapses, Duke now has a veteran backcourt with seniors in Blackwell and Caleb Foster, and sophomore Cayden Boozer. When things get tense, Scheyer will be able to rely on players who have been there, done that with the ball in their hands.
In addition to landing Blackwell and signing the nation's No. 1 recruiting class, retaining players like Foster, Boozer, Dame Sarr, and Patrick Ngongba II gives the Blue Devils one of the deepest and most talented rosters in college basketball.
Duke is one of college basketball's big winners this offseason
It speaks to how good a job Scheyer has done in rebuilding this roster that Duke could lose the National Player of the Year in Cameron Boozer, along with second-leading scorer Isaiah Evans, and still be considered a big winner.
"I think Duke keeping all of their core pieces around and then getting John Blackwell is a huge headline," Rob Dauster of The Field of 68 said. ..."We can talk about all the winners of the transfer portal, but the real headline winners of the offseason, to me, are that Florida, Duke, Illinois, UConn are running this thing back."
Duke will be in contention to be preseason No. 1. If Rueben Chinyelu exits the draft process and returns to Florida, the Gators will probably start the year with the No. 1 ranking, but the Blue Devils have an argument and likely won't be any lower than No. 3 at worst.
Depth will be the strength of Duke next season. They may not have a supertar like Boozer in the frontcourt again, but trimming down the rotation will be a monumental task for Scheyer, as it appears that he has 11 legitimate options in the rotation.
Scheyer has Duke right back in the thick of the national title race again, and eventually the Blue Devils are going to knock down that door under his guidance.
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