#1 – UNC || #2 – NC State || #3 – Wake Forest || #4 – Virginia || #5 – #Clemson||#6 – Miami || #7 – Louisville || #8 – Pitt || #9 – Georgia Tech || #10 – Syracuse || #11 – Boston College || #12 – Virginia Tech || #13 – Florida State || #14 – Notre Dame || #15 – SMU || #16 – Cal || #17 – Stanford || #18 – Duke Part I
Jon Scheyer continues to build interesting teams. This year, he has five players back: Caleb Foster, Patrick Ngongba, Dame Sarr, Cayden Boozer, and Sebastian Wilkins, who redshirted last season, something we won’t see again with players now getting five years instead of four.
By contemporary standards, getting five players back is pretty good. Scheyer tends to take those guys, recruit some more outstanding high school players, and use the portal judiciously to add pieces that complement the whole.
This year is no different.
The crown jewel of the portal class is John Blackwell, a 6-5 senior who comes over from Wisconsin.
He was not highly recruited out of high school, but blossomed in Madison. Last season he scored 19.1 points per game, pulled down 5.1 boards, and averaged 2.3 assists. He also converted 67% of his catch-and-shoot threes and hit 85.9% from the line.
Blackwell also has a clutch gene and a habit of stepping up in big games for the Badgers. Last year, in the Big Ten Tournament, he lit up Washington for 34 points, and the next night torched his dad’s alma mater, Illinois, for 31 (his dad, Glynn, played for the Illini from 1984-88 and was a team captain as a senior).
He also hit a dagger three-pointer against Minnesota last year, and a couple of weeks later scored the last 7 points against the Gophers in a ermatch. They’re probably happy to see him go.
Blackwell also gives Duke four point guards. He won’t start at the point, but like Foster, Boozer, and freshman Deron Rippey, he can play either spot.
In fact, it might be really rare to see Duke with just one point guard on the floor this season.
On the downside, we learned from the NBA Draft Combine that Blackwell has the dreaded alligator arms: his wingspan is shorter than his height.
It won’t matter much in college, but it’s a big deal in the NBA.
He’s also shown signs of leadership over the summer, notably talking a lot in practice and workouts. Duke fans are going to like him.
They’re going to like Drew Scharnowski, too. A 6-10 redshirt junior transfer from Belmont, he may not get full appreciation yet for his potential impact. Bottom line: the guy is a real bruiser. He is, probably by far, the player on this year’s Duke team most likely to leave some bruises on opponents.
If you’ve watched Duke video over the summer, you probably noticed that no one likes to run into this guy. Not only is he a big guy, he appears to have a bit of a mean streak.
He’s going to take over some of Maliq Brown’s responsibilities as a glue guy and a defender. And like Brown, he’s a very good passer.
He’s probably more athletic than Brown, may be able to switch out on smaller players, and he’s probably faster than Brown, too.
However, Brown is a defensive prodigy. Scharnowski probably won’t be as good there, but he’ll have more help inside than Brown did, too.
Scharnowski has had one serious limitation on his game: he’s an awful free-throw shooter. Last year, he shot just 43.6% from the line. He’s also not a big three-point shooter, having taken just five last season.
Like Blackwell, he comes from a basketball family. His brother, Max, played for Alabama. His dad, Haug, played for St. Cloud State and then professionally in Germany. And while his mom, Cyndi, wasn’t a hooper, she was a collegiate swimmer.
The third portal addition is Jacob Theodosiou.
A native of Waterloo, Ontario, Theodosiou attended Duke Basketball Camp as a young player, and apparently Duke was his dream school. It took a while, but things worked for him.
As a freshman, he played at Wyoming, then transferred to Loyola Maryland, where he really blossomed. Over the last two years, Theodosiou averaged 13.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.
He also led the Patriot League in steals in the 2024-25 season with 1.7 per game.
He shoots well, especially from mid-range, and he doesn’t mind playing defense.
Scheyer has made a habit of recruiting portal players, often from elite academic institutions, who are brought in for character as much as anything.
Think of Kale Catchings (Harvard), Max Johns (Princeton), Neal Begovich (Stanford), Cameron Sheffield (Rice), and Jack Scott (Princeton).
These guys were all brought in as mature, intelligent players who understood their role, which was essentially to help in practice, provide structure and guidance for younger players, and act as insurance against injuries.
Theodosiou is probably good enough to crack the rotation at some ACC schools, but at Duke, he’s almost certainly going to be a practice player.
If he’s more than that, something has either gone incredibly well, or very badly.
Next up — a look at the exciting freshman class.
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