The 2026-27 Duke Blue Devils will probably operate a bit differently than they have over the past couple of years.
Head coach Jon Scheyer and his staff likely will not have the best player in the entire sport on their roster, as they have in the past two seasons with Cameron Boozer and Cooper Flagg. Instead, this team was built with continuity and balance.
The Blue Devils are probably the deepest team in college basketball heading into the year, with length and switchability across the board on defense. On offense, Duke probably won't revolve everything around one player, as it did with Boozer and Flagg, but Wisconsin transfer John Blackwell will be the ringleader for this team's offensive success.
Blackwell isn't getting enough buzz as one of the top 2027 National Player of the Year candidates.
Why John Blackwell Is an Underrated National Player of the Year Candidate
Calling it a "criticism" isn't the right way to put it, but one key difference between this year's Duke team and those in the past couple of years is that it will not have a bona fide National Player of the Year frontrunner on its roster. It's probably true that Duke won't have the most dominant player in the sport on its roster this year, but Blackwell has the path and skill set to be a legitimate NPOY candidate.
Again, the Blue Devils likely won't build their offense around one guy. This year's squad, at least on paper, has offensive options everywhere. However, none are the proven, efficient volume scorer that Blackwell is.
One of Scheyer and Co.'s biggest needs this offseason was a go-to scoring option, and that's exactly what the former Badger will provide. Last season with the Badgers, the 6'5" guard averaged 19.1 points per game on 43.0% shooting from the field and 38.9% shooting from three-point range on 7.3 attempts. He finished sixth in the Big Ten in total points scored last season and third in total threes made.
Blackwell has also proven to be a high-level volume scorer throughout his career. In three seasons at Wisconsin, the Michigan native has averaged 14.3 points per game on 44.1% shooting from the field (10.4 attempts) and 37.3% from the perimeter (4.7 attempts).
Now, the key difference in 2026-27 for Blackwell with Duke, which paves the way for his potential candidacy for National Player of the Year, is that this will be the first time in his collegiate career when he will have the opportunity to be the undisputed go-to scorer.
As a rookie at Wisconsin in 2023-24, Blackwell only started one game and averaged 18.5 minutes a night. In his sophomore and junior seasons, he was either a secondary scoring option or at least had competition as the team's top scorer. Last season, it was Nick Boyd. The year before that, it was John Tonje.
With the Blue Devils, Blackwell will have the keys to be the go-to guy. Duke has scoring everywhere, but no one else on the roster has proven to be as efficient a volume scorer as Blackwell has been throughout his career.
So, Scheyer and Co. have elite complementary scorers everywhere, but no one with the scoring pedigree that Blackwell possesses. Over three seasons, he has proven to be an elite scorer. He has also proven he can do it in big moments, going for back-to-back outings of 30 or more points in the Big Ten Tournament this past season.
With the proven efficiency at high volume that Blackwell has already shown, mixed with the path he's going to have as a No. 1 scoring option, he has a chance to be one of the best scorers in the country while on a National Championship contender.
Blackwell's Role Isn't Limited to Scoring
Scoring will be Blackwell's primary role, and I think much of Duke's offensive ceiling this season will depend on his ability to stay efficient at high volume. However, that's not the only way he impacts winning.
Blackwell is a good perimeter defender with a 6'5" frame, so Duke doesn't sacrifice any size on the perimeter on that side of the ball. He averaged over a steal a night last season and has averaged at least two assists per game in each of the last two seasons.
Blackwell also moves well without the basketball and doesn't necessarily need it in his hands to be impactful. He is a great cutter, and Scheyer could even maybe use him as a decoy at times, given the attention he is probably going to get from opposing defenses.
Additionally, it will likely be difficult for opponents to game plan to stop Blackwell offensively since Duke has scoring everywhere. Caleb Foster, Dame Sarr, Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, Sebastian Wilkins, Cameron Williams, and others can all be a threat from outside, and the Blue Devils' interior will be a nightmare to deal with.
Blackwell will see the volume on a team that is going to contend. Duke might not have a top-three player in the sport on its roster this season, but the Wisconsin transfer could be one of the most prolific scorers in college basketball.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/duke as Why Duke Basketball's John Blackwell an Underrated NPOY Candidate.