Tag: Caleb Foster

The best photos from Caleb Foster’s 2023-24 season with Duke basketball

Caleb Foster will be one of two returning starters in Durham for the 2024-25 season. Check out the best photos from his freshman season here.

[autotag]Caleb Foster[/autotag]’s freshman season got overshadowed by [autotag]Jared McCain[/autotag], a five-star prospect who became a first-round draft pick after multiple 30-point games.

That doesn’t mean Foster should be taken for granted by Blue Devils fans, however. The in-state talent’s debut campaign ended early after a stress fracture in his ankle, but he still ended the 2023-24 season with 7.7 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. He made more than 40% of his 3-point attempts, and he started in 15 of his 27 appearances.

10 different Duke basketball players left campus this offseason. McCain and [autotag]Kyle Filipowski[/autotag] left for the professional ranks while half a dozen players headed to other collegiate programs.

However, Foster and Tyrese Proctor stuck around, and Foster seems poised to take over as one of the leaders of the team during his sophomore season. He’s even gotten NBA draft hype for next year thanks to his 6-foot-5 frame and early prowess as a ball handler.

Here are the best photos from his first season with the Blue Devils.

Three Duke basketball players go within the top 10 in new 2025 mock draft

CBS Sports released an early 2025 mock draft on Saturday morning, and Gary Parrish had three Blue Devils within the first 10 picks.

The 2024-25 Duke basketball team remains a runaway hype train, and CBS Sports added another layer to the momentum on Saturday morning.

In a new 2025 mock draft from Gary Parrish, three Blue Devils came off the board within the first 10 picks.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], who is considered the favorite to get taken first in 12 months time, went before anyone else to the Washington Wizards.

“He’s terrific,” Parrish wrote about Flagg, who finished atop every major recruiting ranking. “He’s been an undeniable star at the high school level (and on the grassroots circuit) for years, so much so that I really do believe all 30 NBA franchises would take the 6-foot-9 forward first overall if next year’s draft were held right now.”

Flagg would be the first American picked No. 1 since fellow Duke star Paolo Banchero went to the Orlando Magic in 2022.

Four picks later, 7-footer [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] went to the Toronto Raptors with the fifth overall pick. The South Sudanese star, whom Parrish said could be the best prospect in NBA Academy Africa history.

The presumed lottery pick contains more than just shot-blocking potential, however, with highlights from his Basketball Africa League games including knockdown 3-pointers.

The third and final Blue Devil in the lottery came from the returning crop with sophomore guard [autotag]Caleb Foster[/autotag] going 10th to the Brooklyn Nets. A 6-foot-5 ball-handler who made 40% of his 3-pointers and averaged two assists per game last year, Foster brings an appealing set of skills to the NBA level.

Parrish’s projection only included the first 14 picks of the lottery, but other names like Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel have been thrown around in 2025 mock drafts already. Check out Duke Wire’s predictions for who heads to the pros and who returns for 2025-26 here.

247Sports’ Way Too Early 2025 NBA mock draft features five Duke basketball players

Duke places five first rounders in way-too-early mock draft from 247Sports.

With the first round of the 2024 NBA draft having come and gone, 247Sports and many other outlets are already turning their attention to next year. Many NBA franchises are also doing the same thing since the 2025 NBA draft is shaping to be one of the most star-studded drafts in recent memory.

Duke’s Jared McCain went 16th overall to Philadelphia on Wednesday night and ended up being Duke’s only first-round selection for the 2024 draft. Kyle Filipowski fell out of the first round entirely.

Even with one round left in this year’s draft, 247Sports believes Duke will have more than one first-rounder next year if their way-too-early 2025 mock draft is any indication.

There’s a plethora of legit franchise-changing options, and it has the potential to be one of the best crops of draft talent in many years. Where the 2024 draft lacked the high-end superstar type of talent, 2025 makes up for that abundance.

At number one to the Brooklyn Nets, [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] still stands tall. He’s as generational a prospect as Duke has had in the one-and-done era, and the hype will need to be realized this fall when Duke takes the court. His blend of size, athleticism, defensive prowess, and competitiveness has carried him through the prep ranks, but now he’ll have to show he can be the guy on college basketball’s biggest brand in an attempt to lead Duke to its sixth national title.

[autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] is slated to go fifth overall to the Utah Jazz. The 7-footer’s blend of size, length, rim protection, and evolving offensive game, which sees him consistently shooting from a distance, makes him an incredibly enticing center prospect.

[autotag]Caleb Foster[/autotag] received major love in this mock draft. After not being on NBA radars last season as a freshman, there seems to be some major momentum to Foster’s stock, and some in the NBA community are taking notice. Foster has terrific size for a guard prospect, standing at 6-foot-5, and he can play on and off the ball while shooting 40% from 3-point range. His home at Duke this year will be more off the ball as a potent scoring option for Duke while Tyrese Proctor continues to handle the point guard role primarily.

He can shoot and handle the ball and showed how much of a slasher he can be with Duke. Because of the shooting they brought in during the offseason, they will likely spread the court much better, opening up driving lanes galore. This mock has him going to New Orleans with the 14th pick and joining former Blue Devils Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson.

[autotag]Isaiah Evans[/autotag] was picked to land with the Memphis Grizzlies at the 16th pick in this exercise. His length is a problem for defenders at 6-foot-7, and while many compare him to the previously mentioned Ingram, they only share an ability to score and similar collegiate body shapes. Duke has slim players who need to add mass, but Evans is as fiery as they come on the court. He’s a confident player with a dazzling offensive package. He will be asked to be a sparkplug off the bench for Jon Scheyer’s team this year.

The final first-rounder for Duke in this mock draft is [autotag]Kon Kneuppel[/autotag], and he may be the most unknown to Duke fans. While he probably won’t start this year, Knueppel feels like an important player off the bench for the Blue Devils. He is not the most athletic player Duke will play this year, but he’s tough, understands basketball at a high level, and does everything well, especially on the court. He can shoot at a high clip and pass, and at 6-foot-6, he has the size and physicality to bang down low and rebound, too. He was mocked to the current defending champion, Boston Celtics, with the 30th and final pick of the fist round and would play alongside [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag].

Noticeably, Proctor was not named in this mock draft. Proctor’s stock has taken a hit since his freshman year. Still, there’s reason to believe that the Australian can resuscitate his draft stock with a Wendell Moore-like jump as a junior and potentially sneak himself back into consideration.

Duke basketball releases footage from first 2024-25 team scrimmage

The 2024-25 Duke basketball team finally got to practice this week, and the team dropped footage from the first scrimmage late on Friday.

There are still a few months before the Duke basketball team starts playing in front of the Cameron Crazies on campus, but Blue Devils fans can watch the 2024-25 team play basketball now.

The team posted two social media clips to X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) before revealing that they posted a six-minute video to their YouTube page.

Fans got their first look at Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 prospect in the country, and the four other healthy freshmen from the Class of 2024 (the team announced Darren Harris would miss time after he underwent surgery to repair a broken hand).

Khaman Maluach, the 7-footer from South Sudan and a presumed lottery pick in the 2025 NBA draft, threw down a lob from returning guard Tyrese Proctor at one point in the video. Tulane transfer guard Sion James, a presumed starter next season, also popped off the screen multiple times, and in-state talent Isaiah Evans nailed a deep jumper.

Flagg also knocked down a triple later in the video on a feed from Proctor.

Duke freshman guard Darren Harris out indefinitely with fractured hand

Incoming Duke basketball freshman Darren Harris is out indefinitely after fracturing non-shooting hand, the team announced on Friday.

Duke’s injury bug has been a well-documented occurrence in the Duke basketball program over the last decade or more. There have been some devastating injuries that some would even believe cost the Blue Devils’ chances at national titles.

Last year’s team experienced some significant injury issues, including injuries to starting point guard Tyrese Proctor, which forced him to miss more than ten games last year. Jeremy Roach missed a few games as well. Caleb Foster was lost for the remainder of the season after a stress fracture in his foot was aggravated in the road game against Wake Forest.

Proctor and Foster return as significant pieces for the 2024-25 Duke team that seems ready to go after the team’s first practices. Even with that said, an injury has already impacted this year’s team.

Darren Harris is the first Blue Devil on this year’s team to suffer a significant injury. The program announced that the freshman, one of six 2024 signees for head coach Jon Scheyer, fractured his non-shotting hand at some point over the summer.

This injury would explain Darren Harris’ noticeable absence from the team’s player-specific highlight videos released on social media this week showcasing every scholarship team member.

Harris had surgery on Tuesday, the team said, and he is expected to make a full recovery.

There is no official timetable for his return, but this type of injury typically requires a six-week recovery, meaning that Harris may miss the entire summer. The timeframe will put him on track to pick things back up as the team prepares for the season.

Harris came to Duke as the 2023-24 Gatorade Virginia Player of the Year and finished as the No. 37 player in the country, according to 247Sports. He led his high school, Fairfax (VA) Paul VI, to the national title game, where they faced off against his now-teammate Cooper Flagg and Montverde Academy. They finished with a 33-2 overall record, averaging 17.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.9 steals per game.

With his injury, Duke’s potential rotation log jam somewhat clears up.

It’s hard to imagine early in the season without practice time that Harris will contribute early. Fellow freshmen Isaiah Evans and Kon Knueppel look to fit into reserve roles off the bench, most likely. It also means that the addition of Sion James solidifies him as the team’s third guard for the foreseeable future, assuming Proctor and Foster are starters.

Haris’s potential as a shooter will be missed, but since the injury is not season-ending, Duke is hopeful he can come back and be a contributor at some point.

247Sports slots Duke in at seventh in 2024-25 men’s basketball power rankings

Most questions around Duke’s star-studded roster revolve around its many freshmen, but 247Sports’ Isaac Trotter cast his spotlight elsewhere.

247Sports’ Isaac Trotter released an updated power rankings for the 2024-25 men’s college basketball season on Tuesday, and he slid a stacked Duke roster down to seventh.

After a stacked recruiting class led by No. 1 prospect Cooper Flagg had the Blue Devils atop many early power rankings right after the national championship, head coach Jon Scheyer’s team has slid down to somewhere between sixth and 10th in most post-draft withdrawal rankings.

Trotter did explain that the Blue Devils have the talent to be one of the best teams in the country, particularly praising the defense.

Most rankings question Duke’s reliance on first-year players, saying that Flagg and projected lottery pick Khaman Maluach offer too many question marks. Trotter, however, had a different question.

“All eyes are on whether Duke’s two returners can flex their muscles as All-League guards,” Trotter wrote. “Sophomore Caleb Foster will be a big breakout candidate, and it’s now or never for junior Tyrese Proctor to put it all together. There are no excuses. This Duke roster is loaded with just about everything it needs to go banner-hunting, but Proctor and Foster have to hold up their end of the bargain.”

Foster, who played 27 games as a freshman before an ankle injury cut his debut season short, averaged 7.7 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 2.1 assists last year while shooting 40.6% from beyond the arc.

Proctor, as a sophomore, averaged 10.5 points and led the team with 3.7 assists per game but shot just 42.3% from the floor.

The Blue Devils were the last of seven teams included in Trotter’s highest tier in the country.

Duke basketball teases some big upcoming guests for The Brotherhood Podcast

The Blue Devils shared some photos through social media on Thursday to get fans excited for future episodes of the team’s podcast.

The Brotherhood Podcast, a Duke basketball production that lets current and former Blue Devils talk about themselves and the team, might have some big guests in the near future.

The men’s basketball social media account shared two photos from the recording booth on social media Thursday, one of head coach Jon Scheyer and ESPN’s Jay Bilas and another of current Duke guard Caleb Foster and the Orlando Magic’s Paolo Banchero.

Bilas, who played for Duke from 1982-86, has become one of the biggest voices in college basketball over his last decade with the network.

Banchero, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA draft, played one season for the Blue Devils in 2022. He helped guide Duke to the Final Four in legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final season.

The first episode of The Brotherhood Podcast was released last July. Banchero and Bilas have not yet appeared on the program, but former Blue Devil stars like Grant Hill, Dereck Lively II, and Quinn Cook all have episodes on the channel.

It remains to be seen whether Banchero and Bilas appear separately or together, but all indications from channel history say they’ll each get their own turn in the spotlight.

This stat proves Tulane transfer Sion James is a perfect fit in Duke’s guard room

Sion James joins Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster in Duke’s backcourt for 2024-25, but he offers an offensive dimension neither can match.

Former Tulane guard Sion James announced his commitment to the Duke Blue Devils on Friday, adding another excellent starting option for head coach Jon Scheyer.

However, while James can play the same position as Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor, his advanced stats show he also plays an entirely different game.

According to CBB Analytics, half of James’ shot attempts last season came around the rim. The former Green Wave star shot 51.4% from the floor in 2023-24, but his efficiency jumped to 62% as he closed in on the basket. When you consider his 6-foot-6, 220-pound frame, it makes sense that James builds his game around his athletic prowess.

Contrast that with Foster and Proctor, who both stand 6-foot-5 and below 200 pounds. Foster attempted 69 3-pointers last year, more than 40% of his shots. Proctor tossed up 165 triples, more than half of his respective attempts.

James upped his 3-point production in each of his four years with Tulane, attempting 113 last year and connecting at a 38.1% clip. However, that still represented less than 40% of his overall shotmaking.

Only time will tell how much Foster, Proctor, and James all stand on the court together next season. However, trading 2023-24 star Jared McCain for James means teams have to entirely adjust to Duke’s guard play. James’ interior creation and finishing ability can open up looks for his sharpshooting teammates, a combination Scheyer surely targeted on purpose.

Duke Blue Devils, Jon Scheyer add Tulane Green Wave transfer guard Sion James

Duke adds Tulane transfer Sion James.

The Duke Blue Devils landed their third transfer of the offseason when Tulane transfer Sion James announced his commitment on Friday. On3’s Joe Tipton first reported the decision.

James declared for the NBA Draft while retaining his eligibility earlier this spring. After a pre-draft workout in Memphis last week, James officially visited Duke, and the rest is history.

The newest Blue Devil is listed as a 6-foot-6, 220-pound guard who appeared in 31 games for the Green Wave during the 2023-24 season, leading the team in minutes at nearly 37 per game. He was highly productive, with averages of 14.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per contest while shooting 51% from the field. He was proficient from deep, too, shooting 38% with an effective field goal percentage of 59 percent, good for the 84th percentile in college basketball last year.

James’ value to Duke is his physicality and slashing ability. One area Duke has lacked in the last couple of seasons was a guard consistently getting downhill to the lane and finishing regularly. James has the size and strength, coupled with an excellent first step, to be a menace to opposing defenses as he attacks the lane. Half of his shot attempts last year were at the rim, where he shot 62%.

He also played point guard for the Green Wave, highlighted by his 13% assist rate. He routinely initiated offenses for Tulane and could create shots for others even when out of sets.

[autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag]’s second season at Duke improved in many areas from year one. However, it was not without turbulence. That’s part of the growth process for a young coach—especially one without any head coaching experience before he took over the job from the legendary Mike Krzyzewski.

After an appearance in the Elite Eight that saw them lose to NC State, it was back to the drawing board for Scheyer and his staff as they look to bring Duke its sixth national championship and first since 2015.

Seven players from the 2023-24 team entered the transfer portal. The type of mass exodus that would have any program scrambling. Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster announced their intentions to return. Duke has six freshmen inbound, led by high school basketball’s best player, Cooper Flagg. The Blue Devils already added Purdue transfer Mason Gillis and Syracuse big man Maliq Brown from the portal.

Duke now has three guards who aren’t freshmen. They can rely on one to bring the ball up. It also gives Duke another wrinkle of versatility, as James can seamlessly guard positions 1-3. Hence, it allows Scheyer to run a full three-guard lineup like this past year or have one of Proctor, Foster, or James come off the bench as a big-time stabilizing force for Duke’s second unit.

This addition also allows Duke not to rely on freshmen Darren Harris, Kon Knueppel, and Isaiah Evans nearly as much and will enable them to ease into the college game.

Duke’s impact transfer portal pursuits are wrapped up. Any other transfers are likely for deep bench depth and are unlikely to be counted on as meaningful contributors nightly.

ESPN lists Duke as the No. 1 team in their Way-Too-Early Top 25

Duke the top team in the country in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25.

Less than 48 hours after Dan Hurley’s Connecticut Huskies completed one of the rare college basketball feats of repeating as national champions, the page has already turned to 2024-25 for the rest of the college basketball world.

ESPN made sure to get its Way-Too-Early Top 25 up late on Monday night, and the number one team in those rankings resides in Durham, NC.

Duke bowed out of the NCAA Tournament this season in the Elite Eight to an NC State team that spent the last 12 games playing incredibly inspired basketball. Duke led in the first half, but State overwhelmed Duke with incredible shotmaking and suffocating defense in the second half to send the Blue Devils home.

Duke is now in the process of reflecting and retooling for next year. There’s a renewed energy around the program as Scheyer will welcome the nation’s top recruiting class, highlighted by one of the most heralded number one high school basketball players since LeBron James, forward Cooper Flagg.

ESPN staff writer Jeff Borzello, who put the rankings together, said this about his decision to put the Blue Devils at the top spot.

“Duke entered this past season as a national title contender, but never quite seemed to put it all together for an extended stretch and ultimately fell in the Elite Eight. Jon Scheyer will have two of the best NBA prospects in the country next season, in No. 1 recruit Cooper Flagg and projected top-five NBA draft pick Khaman Maluach, but the Blue Devils could have point guard issues if Jeremy Roach decides not to take advantage of his fifth option year.”

Borzello also published a projected starting five that featured Flagg, Tyrese Proctor, Caleb Foster, Mark Mitchell, and Maluach. The issue is that Mitchell announced his intent to enter the transfer portal on Tuesday afternoon, so he will not be on the 2024-25 version of the Duke Blue Devils. Duke will likely opt to find a shooter to help space the floor with Flagg and also give those minutes vacated by Mitchell to rising sophomore Sean Stewart should he opt to return.

Tyrese Proctor has not announced whether he plans to enter the portal, opt for professional opportunities, or return to Duke. If we assume Proctor returns, he’s likely a captain and must leap like Wendell Moore. There’s a lot of talent there, but it needs to become consistent. A decision from Jeremy Roach also remains up in the air, and having a fifth-year senior could be massive.

All that aside, Duke plans to utilize the transfer portal, too, so Duke’s roster construction for next year is far from done, with more names expected on their way out, i.e., Kyle Filipowski and Jared McCain, expected to be drafted in the first round.