Duke basketball needs a whole new roster for next season
Jan 28, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer on the sideline in the first half at McCamish Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
No college basketball team illustrates the perils of the transfer portal era better than the Duke Blue Devils right now.
Duke suffered another roster blow on Friday when forward Sean Stewart, a former top-20 recruit, announced that he would be entering the transfer portal. Stewart is the seventh player from Duke’s 2023-24 team to enter the portal, and that does not even count the two players that had already announced their plans to enter the NBA Draft.
As things stand, Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster are the only returnees on the Duke roster. They combined to average just 18.3 points per game last year.
Duke's roster has been completely decimated:
2 guys back: Tyrese Proctor (10.5 ppg), Caleb Foster (7.7 ppg)
NBA: Kyle Filipowski (16.4 ppg), Jared McCain (14.3)
Transfers: Jeremy Roach (14.0), Mark Mitchell (11.6), Sean Stewart (2.6), TJ Power (2.1), Jaylen Blakes (1.8),…
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 19, 2024
Duke, of course, also has access to the transfer portal, and one would expect coach Jon Scheyer to be active in that regard in the coming weeks. The Blue Devils are also bringing in a highly-rated recruiting class anchored by Cooper Flagg, the top-rated recruit in the 2024 class.
Still, Duke will largely be rebuilding from scratch. Scheyer has a big job ahead of him to get a contending team together for next year, and he might just have to learn on some star freshmen to make it work.