Tag: Khaman Maluach

Cooper Flagg ranked as the best men’s college basketball player by ESPN

Four Duke Blue Devils were included among ESPN’s preseason top 100 men’s college basketball players, including one at the very top spot.

ESPN released its preseason ranking of the top 100 men’s college basketball players on Monday, and four Duke Blue Devils made the list.

Returning starter Tyrese Proctor, who led the Blue Devils with 3.7 assists per game in 2023-24, appeared at 66th ahead of five-star freshmen Khaman Maluach (81st) and Kon Knueppel (97th), but another Duke basketball star finished much higher on the list.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], the top prospect in the freshman class, beat out North Carolina Tar Heels star RJ Davis for the No. 1 overall spot.

“There’s a world in which Flagg lives up to all the hype and produces a Carmelo Anthony-esque run, leading Duke to a national championship,” Jeff Borzello and Myron Medcalf wrote when explaining why Flagg got the top spot. “It’s within his range of outcomes. There’s nobody else in the country with that sort of ceiling.”

Flagg, who makes his regular-season debut on Monday night against Maine, averaged 15.5 points, 4.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks in his two preseason exhibitions.

Duke vs. Kansas ranked as the best non-conference game of the college basketball season

College basketball analyst Andy Katz ranked his 10 best non-conference games of the 2024-25 season on Thursday, including three Duke games.

The Duke Blue Devils have one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country this upcoming college basketball season, and people around the country are taking notice.

College basketball analyst Andy Katz released his ranking of the top 10 non-conference games for 2024-25 on Thursday, and Duke’s game against the Kansas Jayhawks took the top spot.

Thanks to top-ranked freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], Olympian 7-footer [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag], and offseason darling [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag], Duke’s stellar freshman class has the Blue Devils among the early favorites for the national championship. The Jayhawks, however, might be one of the only teams with better preseason odds as Kansas starts the year as the No. 1 team in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.

Despite their 23-11 record and a second-round NCAA Tournament exit in 2023-24, the Jayhawks reloaded with Alabama Crimson Tide guard Rylan Griffen and Wisconsin Badgers guard AJ Storr from the transfer portal. With that duo paired with 7-footer Hunter Dickinson, who joined Flagg on the preseason AP All-America team, Kansas looks like a juggernaut.

The two powerhouse programs meet in Las Vegas on November 26.

The Blue Devils’ December 4 game against the Auburn Tigers, a part of the ACC/SEC Challenge, came in ninth on Katz’s list and their February battle with the Illinois Fighting Illini at Madison Square Garden finished out the list at tenth.

Auburn starts the year 11th in the coaches poll while Illinois will start the season as the No. 24 team.

Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer explains what he thinks are his team’s biggest strengths

On Thursday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer gave his verdict on the Blue Devils’ biggest strength.

It feels impossible to determine the biggest strength of a team like the Duke Blue Devils. Between the talent of [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and the half-dozen other NBA prospects on the roster, there might not be anything the roster can’t do.

However, during a Thursday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, head coach Jon Scheyer found an answer. While he praised the versatility and toughness of his team, he thinks the Blue Devils’ secret weapon is off the court.

“Our unselfishness as a team,” Scheyer told sophomore guard Caleb Foster, the host of the show. “I think that’s something you either have organically or you don’t. Feel we have a group that has it.”

“To me, that’s our biggest strength. Forget the skillset or the offense. You guys, man, I think there’s a connection there.”

If any Duke basketball fans want more of a tangible answer, however, the third-year Blue Devils coach circled back around to his team’s versatility.

“The fact that you have, on offense, multiple playmakers,” Scheyer said. “Multiple guys that can pass, shoot, and dribble, but then on defense, we have a team that can guard a lot of different positions.”

Considering that every single member of the Duke basketball rotation stands at least 6-foot-5, it’s easy to see why Scheyer thinks the Blue Devils have an answer for every question. Top-ranked freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] can defend guards and forwards thanks to his 6-foot-9 frame and athleticism, and first-year 7-footer Khaman Maluach lets the tall Duke lineup take advantage of its size elsewhere.

The Cameron Crazies got a small glimpse of that versatility on Saturday during Duke’s first exhibition game of the year. The Blue Devils defeated Lincoln 107-56 thanks to 22 points from Flagg.

Duke basketball has more NBA talent than any other college program, ESPN says

According to a Saturday story from ESPN, the Duke Blue Devils have more NBA talent on their roster than any other college basketball team.

This won’t come as a surprise to any Duke basketball fans familiar with the 2024 recruiting class, but ESPN thinks that head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] and the Blue Devils have more NBA talent at their disposal than any other college team.

In a Saturday ranking of the 10 teams with the most professional prospects on the roster, Duke took the top overall spot.

Any conversation about the NBA talent in Durham needs to start and finish with Cooper Flagg, whom ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony ranked as the best 2025 prospect with more than a 50% chance to be the first overall pick.

Fellow freshmen Kon Knueppel and Khaman Malauch finished sixth and eighth in Givony’s prospect rankings, and all three players looked the part of lottery picks during a Saturday exhibition against Lincoln. Maluach, a 7-foot-2 center from South Sudan, pulled down 11 rebounds while Knueppel made five 3-pointers in the first half en route to a 17-point game.

Flagg, the best of the bunch, scored 22 points with six assists and four blocks, including a resounding highlight in the opening minutes when he swatted a Lions’ layup off the backboard.

Junior Tyrese Proctor (19 points) and sophomore Caleb Foster (eight points) have both received first-round grades over the course of their careers, and five-star freshman Isaiah Evans scored nine points on Saturday.

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Arizona Wildcats, Connecticut Huskies, and North Carolina Tar Heels also finished with ESPN’s top five in the NBA talent rankings.

Kon Knueppel puts a Lincoln defender on a poster in the first Duke basketball exhibition

Duke basketball’s five-star freshman Kon Knueppel continued to make a name for himself with a thunderous dunk in Saturday’s exhibition game.

Few freshmen have captured the attention of the Duke basketball fandom as much as [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag] so far this offseason, and the Knueppel hype train somehow gained even more steam during Saturday’s exhibition game against the Lincoln Lions.

The five-star freshman made five 3-pointers in the opening half against the Lions, but his most impressive moment came after the break. After a rebound by classmate [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag], Knueppel cut down the baseline toward the basket.

Maluach dished it to his teammate, and Knueppel jumped up and slammed the ball home over 6-foot-9 Lincoln forward Ethan Garita.

The coolest part about the play? Knueppel’s classmates celebrated harder than he did. [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], the top-ranked player in the country, flexed as he stomped back up the court, and Maluach pumped his fists in triumph as he got back on defense.

ESPN draft expert Jonathan Givony ranked Knueppel as the sixth-best NBA draft prospect after watching a Duke basketball practice, and CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein singled out the Wisconsin native for how impressive he looked after a trip to Durham.

Duke starts the 2024-25 basketball season second in KenPom’s efficiency rankings

With the season around the corner, the Duke Blue Devils start the year second on popular analytics site KenPom’s preseason rankings.

Popular college basketball analytics website KenPom released its 2024-25 preseason rankings this week, and the Duke Blue Devils start the year second in the site’s adjusted efficiency margin.

With a loaded freshman class including [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], the top player in the country, and three other five-stars, head coach Jon Scheyer assembled one of the deepest rosters in the country.

Returning starters Tyrese Proctor (10.5 points and a team-high 3.7 assists last season) and Caleb Foster (7.7 points, 40.6% 3PT) should anchor one of the most explosive offenses in the country. Those two said on The Brotherhood Podcast earlier this summer that the Blue Devils want to play with more tempo in 2024-25, and KenPom credits Duke as the seventh-best offense in the nation.

The real selling point, however, is the defense. Flagg and South Sudanese 7-footer [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag], who represented his country at the Olympic Games in Paris, should both be among the best defenders in the ACC immediately, and Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown gets high praise from his teammates and coaches.

KenPom considers Duke the third-best defense in the country, meaning the Blue Devils are one of four teams within the top 10 on both sides of the ball (Houston Cougars, Auburn Tigers, and Kansas Jayhawks).

Houston was the only team ranked above the Blue Devils, but the Cougars have the top spot by a considerable margin. The gap between Houston and Duke in second is smaller than the distance between Duke and seventh-ranked Iowa State.

The Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Connecticut Huskies took the remaining spots in the top five.

Duke Blue Devils picked to win the ACC in 2024-25 preseason men’s basketball poll

With top-ranked freshman Cooper Flagg at the helm, voters think the Duke Blue Devils will finish atop the ACC in 2024-25.

The ACC released the 2024-25 men’s basketball preseason poll on Tuesday, and the Duke Blue Devils look like the favorites to win the conference.

Head coach Jon Scheyer and his team received 42 of the 54 possible first-place votes, ending up with a conference-leading 956 points in the voting.

While Scheyer has made the Elite Eight, won 54 games, and taken home an ACC Tournament title over his first two seasons as the Duke head coach, he’s yet to win the conference’s regular-season title. After a 29-11 ACC record to start his tenure, the voters seem to think he’ll add that bullet point to his resume next spring.

The North Carolina Tar Heels, last season’s regular-season conference champion, received 11 of the other 12 votes to finish second with 924 points. No other team finished with more than 800 (Wake Forest).

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], the top-ranked freshman and presumed No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, plays a huge role in why the Blue Devils start the year as ACC favorites. He dominated the voting for ACC Rookie of the Year, earning all but one vote for the award, and made the All-ACC First Team with the second-most votes in the conference.

Flagg’s not the only reason why the Blue Devils look like national championship contenders, however. Classmates [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag] and [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] both made ESPN’s top 10 NBA draft prospects, returning starters Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster bring a combined 73 starts to the lineup, and the three transfers look like instant-impact players.

Duke starts its 2024-25 season on November 4 with a home game against Maine, and the Blue Devils play their first conference game against Louisville on December 8.

Caleb Foster: ‘I came to Duke to win, and I’m living out my dream’

Caleb Foster, currently ranked No. 44 on ESPN’s Top 100 for the 2025 NBA Draft, made an immediate impact in his freshman season at Duke. Foster’s role as sixth man fit him perfectly, stepping in as the primary ballhandler when Tyrese Proctor was off …

Caleb Foster, currently ranked No. 44 on ESPN’s Top 100 for the 2025 NBA Draft, made an immediate impact in his freshman season at Duke. Foster’s role as sixth man fit him perfectly, stepping in as the primary ballhandler when Tyrese Proctor was off the court. He maintained a solid 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio and shot 40.6 percent from deep. His season was cut short by an ankle fracture, but he started 15 games, helping Duke to a 13-2 record in those contests.

Despite missing the postseason, the 6-foot-5 guard’s efficiency and shooting made him a crucial part of the team.

During the 2024 ACC Tip-Off, Foster spoke with HoopsHype, reflecting on his offseason improvements, praising the incoming freshman class, and discussing season expectations and more.

Duke basketball begins the 2024-25 season within the top 10 of the AP Poll

The Associated Press released its preseason men’s basketball rankings on Monday. See where the Blue Devils start the year here.

The Associated Press released its preseason men’s basketball rankings on Monday, and despite Duke head coach Jon Scheyer pulling in the best recruiting class in the country, the Blue Devils didn’t crack the top five.

The voters left Duke seventh, only three points behind the Gonzaga Bulldogs in sixth.

Top-ranked freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and recent Olympian [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] lead a freshman class featuring four five-star talents, but Scheyer lost 10 players from last year’s roster. Even with veteran transfers like Tulane’s Sion James, Purdue’s Mason Gillis, and Syracuse’s Maliq Brown, there have been national questions about Duke’s reliance on first-year talent. The team’s spot in the rankings indicates that several voters buy into those concerns.

Despite Scheyer’s team coming in lower than expected, Duke still finished higher than any other team in the ACC. The North Carolina Tar Heels, last year’s conference champion, will start the year in ninth, and no other team from the conference made the top 25 (The Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Miami Hurricanes, the Clemson Tigers, and Louisville Cardinals all received votes).

The Kansas Jayhawks, Alabama Crimson Tide, Connecticut Huskies, Houston Cougars, and Iowa State Cyclones took the top five spots in order.

Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer has landed more than a dozen five-stars since 2022

With the addition of the Boozer twins, Jon Scheyer has landed multiple five-star prospects in each of his four recruiting classes.

Duke basketball coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] did something on Friday that’s become a frequent occurrence since he took over the Blue Devils: he reeled in a commitment from a five-star prospect.

Cameron and Cayden Boozer, two of the top 25 prospects in the Class of 2025 recruiting rankings, announced their commitments to the Blue Devils on Friday, making them the first two members of Scheyer’s 2025 recruiting class.

Both brothers are five-star talents according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings, meaning that 13 such players have now committed to Scheyer since the Class of 2022.

The 2024 recruiting class has obviously been the talk of the school this summer with top-ranked freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and 7-foot Olympian [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] leading a roster that looks like a preseason favorite to win the national championship.

Wisconsin native Kon Knueppel vaulted all the way to sixth on ESPN’s prospect ranking after analyst Jonathan Givony watched him in practice, and Isaiah Evans was named North Carolina Mr. Basketball in each of his last two seasons of high school.

[autotag]Jared McCain[/autotag], now a member of the Philadelphia 76ers after his impressive freshman season, was one of two five-star prospects in the Class of 2023, and Scheyer’s first recruiting class was almost as loaded as this year’s. Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II, two-time All-ACC forward Kyle Filipowski, and returning starter Tyrese Proctor highlighted a class with five five-star signees.

While the blue-chip talent hasn’t translated to a national championship yet, it’s still produced an ACC tournament title and a trip to the Elite Eight in Scheyer’s first two seasons. With Flagg and the Boozers both zeroed in on championships (and some 2024 signees likely to still be in Durham when the twins arrive in 2025), the odds of a sixth title only climb with each passing year.