It should come as no surprise after head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] ended up with six of the top 40 prospects in the Class of 2024, but the Duke men’s basketball team has some of the best freshman talent in the country.
College basketball analyst Andy Katz released a ranking of his top 10 freshmen for the 2024-25 season on Monday, and two Blue Devils debutants made his list.
Predictably, [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] ended up in the top spot. The most anticipated Duke commit since Zion Williamson finished as the No. 1 recruit on every national ranking after he led Montverde Academy to an undefeated season and a Chipotle Nationals victory.
Flagg even got the chance to cut his teeth against Team USA at Olympic training camp, playing against NBA legends as a member of the Select Team. The Duke star went viral for a sequence of back-to-back baskets in one scrimmage, earning praise from former NBA MVP Kevin Durant.
Katz also ranked [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag], the 7-foot-2 center from South Sudan, as the seventh-best first-year player in the country. Malauch recently represented his country at the Olympic Games at just 17 years old, the youngest basketball player in Paris.
First-year phenoms 💫@TheAndyKatz ranks the top freshmen in the nation for 2024-25 💪 pic.twitter.com/jujq7mbN9q
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) September 23, 2024
Katz didn’t even include Isaiah Evans, a five-star who won North Carolina Mr. Basketball honors each of the past two years, or Kon Knueppel, the breakout star of the offseason who keeps rising up 2025 NBA draft boards.
No matter which combination of freshmen fans choose to place their faith in, the Blue Devils have the deepest stable of new talent in the country.