Duke Basketball Gets Impressive Spot in Preseason Poll

They have a head coach in Jon Scheyer who is looking to improve this team and take them all the way. Last season, this team achieved great things, but at the end of the day, this University plays for National Championships.

That is all they know. Scheyer has now got another year under his belt as a head coach, and he is looking to have that breakthrough of winning it all for Duke.

This upcoming season, it will be important for these players to continue to build that chemistry they have been building all summer, all fall long. It is different when you get on the court with a team that has not played as a unit together against an opposing team.

That is something that comes with playing those important earlier-season games that many people forget about at the end of the season.

But this coaching staff has done a great job of doing this for the last couple of years and they will do it again. That is one advantage that this team has with its coaching staff. 

Duke at Top of One Preseason Poll

• "The Blue Devils came in at No. 1 on the USA TODAY Network ACC basketball preseason poll that was released on Monday, Oct. 6. Fourth-year coach Jon Scheyer’s team leads a deep conference field that includes Louisville, NC State, North Carolina and Virginia rounding out the top five," said Anna Snyder of The Fayetteville Observer.

Duke also had two players earn preseason All-ACC recognition. Freshman forward Cameron Boozer, the nation’s third player overall in the 2025 recruiting class per ESPN, is a unanimous first-team selection that was named both the Preseason Player of the Year and the Freshman of the Year. Sophomore guard Isaiah Evans earned a spot on the second team.

Duke returns six members from its 35-4 season where it won both the ACC regular season and tournament titles, making its 18th appearance in the NCAA Final Four. It welcomes the nation's top-rated recruiting class for the second-straight season and brings in two transfer portal additions.

Duke will play exhibitions vs. UCF (Oct. 21) and at Tennessee (Oct. 26) before officially starting its season on Nov. 4 against Texas at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.