What kind of Duke team will the Spartans face in Scheyer’s fourth season?
It won’t be last year’s Cooper Flagg-led lineup with five NBA draft picks – three in the Top 10 and two in the second round. But the re-loaded roster is projected to have four first-round picks in early mock NBA drafts.
Duke is traveling to East Lansing as the back end of an agreement five years ago when the 2020 Champions Classic double-header played at one site was scrapped due to COVID-19 restrictions. Michigan State agreed to play at empty Cameroon Indoor Arena – where the Spartans won 75-69 — in exchange for Duke making a return visit to East Lansing in the future.
Scheyer was a full-time assistant then and for eight seasons in all until 2021-22 when he was named Coach K’s successor. Krzyzewski, a West Point grad, followed the U.S. Army succession plans by having a coach-in-waiting on the bench next to him for his final season as opposed to a new coach coming in and taking over the program.
Krzyzewski was 75 when he coached his last game. Izzo is 70, but he hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down or hinting at retirement. Nevertheless, was Duke’s successful plan to pass the torch to Scheyer a succession order to study as the inevitable approaches?
Izzo won two of his last four against Coach K, but Scheyer beat Izzo in their first meeting at the 2023 Champions Classic on November 14 in Chicago. The Spartans will get a glimpse of Duke’s fourth season under Scheyer in the Champions Classic on November 18 in New York when Duke plays Kansas and the Spartans face Kentucky.
Scheyer met with the media Tuesday for the first time since the Blue Devils’ loss in the Final Four semifinals when Houston overcame a six-point deficit in the final 1:14. He discussed turning the page from the painful loss for the 2025-26 season.
“You’re not afforded time to really feel,” Scheyer said of the loss. “I was having meetings Monday morning with our players on coming back. You have to make sure you do your job to have the best team possible for the following season. At the same time, I think it’s natural to shy away from it and make an excuse and rationalize. For me, I only know one way, and that’s to dive deeper into it
Duke, as usual, reloaded with another top recruiting class. This one was led by the Boozer twins, sons of former Duke and NBA star Carlos Boozer.
Cameron Boozer is a 6-foot-9, 250-pounder who was ranked the third player overall in the No. 1 power forward. Cayden Boozer, 6-4, 205, was ranked the No. 16 recruit as a guard. Together, they won four straight Florida state titles at Christopher Columbus High in Miami as well as the 2025 Chipotle National title.
Cameron is projected in 2026 mock drafts as the third pick overall. Duke’s other three projected first-round picks are freshman shooting guard Dame Starr (6-8, 190), 15th; sophomore small forward Isaiah Evans (6-7, 175), 17th; and sophomore center Patrick Ngongba II (6-10, 235), 22nd.
Starr is new to the roster after playing two seasons with Barcelona in the top European League. Freshman guard/forward Nikolas Khamenia was the No. 15 recruit in the nation. Guard/forward Sebastian Wilkins (6-8, 220) is another freshman, having reclassified to skip a year of high school.
Evans was projected as a late first-round or second-round pick before deciding to return for another year. He started three of 36 games and averaged 6.8 points.
Ngongba also returns after playing a backup role to 2025 first-round draft pick Khaman Maluach (7-2, 250). He averaged 3.9 points and 2.6 rebounds in 10.5 minutes a game.
Three more returning players are junior forward Caleb Foster (6-5, 205), sophomore guard/forward Darren Harris (6-5, 195) and senior forward Maliq Brown (6-9, 225) who was plagued a year ago by shoulder injuries that have been surgically repaired. Foster started seven of 38 games and averaged 4.9 points. Brown played in 26 games with 2.5 points and 3.7 rebounds and Harris played 20 games with 2.0 scoring.
The leading scorers, of course, were players now preparing for the NBA rookie season.
“We knew that’s lot of firepower to replace, and the best way to do that in my mind was get Caleb Foster to come back and to get Isiaih Evans to come back and Maliq to come back,” Scheyer said. “We have Pat, Darren and Maliq and solidified it with Nick, Cayden and Cameron. To get Sebastion to reclassify and to get Dame, I’m happy where we landed.
“We doubled down on positions and doubled down on versatility, and we’re still doubling down on the fact we have to come together as a team. There are stylistically things I think we can do better. But it starts with having the right people, and I feel we do.”
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