According to longtime ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi, the Duke Blue Devils are no longer the team to beat in 2025.
Lunardi released an updated way-too-early 2025 bracket projection, and Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks overtook Jon Scheyer as the top overall seed.
Duke will welcome Cooper Flagg, the top recruit in the country and the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, and five other top-50 freshmen in the 2024 recruiting class. The Blue Devils also got commitments from Maliq Brown of Syracuse and Mason Gillis of Purdue out of the transfer portal, and the team stood atop Lunardi’s initial 2025 projection.
Kansas, however, returned All-American center Hunter Dickinson after many expected the 2023-24 season to be his last. Self also wooed Alabama’s Rylan Griffen, Wisconsin’s AJ Storr, and Florida’s Riley Kugel, among others.
“All (the portal additions) have NCAA tournament experience and will certainly help the Jayhawks erase the injury-riddled conclusion to their 2023-24 campaign,” Lunardi wrote.
Duke remained a No. 1 seed in the projection, now slotting into the East region.