Jon Scheyer retools Duke's roster for 2026-'27

A talented blend of returnees, portal additions and incoming freshmen

Is Jon Scheyer a ninja? Or a master chef, pulling ingredients from all over the place to create a great entree? Or a young coach, with a great support system mastering the new landscape of college basketball?

My money is on all of the above.

Scheyer has cobbled together a 2026-’27 roster with five returnees, four recruited incoming freshmen, a practice player, three transfers, and a unicorn, a roster that may lack the top-end firepower of a Cooper Flagg or a Cam Boozer but has as much quality depth as any roster in Duke history.

Let’s go to the scorecard.

Maliq Brown, Cam Sheffield and Jack Scott used up their eligibility. Ifeanyi Ufochukwu suffered a major knee injury and isn’t expected to play.

Darren Harris (Indiana) and Nik Khamenia (Connecticut) left by the transfer portal.

Cam Boozer and Isaiah Evans entered the NBA draft. Boozer projects to be drafted somewhere in the top three, with Evans in the second half of the first round. Brown is showing up in some mocks at the end of the second round.

With the possible exception of Khamenia, none of these losses was a surprise.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, winning-the-portal can sometimes mean keeping talent from entering the portal in the first place. I’m not going to be disingenuous. NIL plays a factor. But Duke tries to pay these players rationally, figuring out what a player is worth and going from there. If this sounds a long way from Dear-Ole-Duke, well, this is the world in which we live.

But as David Cutcliffe was fond of saying, “be where your feet are.” Duke’s feet has Patrick Ngongba II, Caleb Foster, Cayden Boozer, Dame Sarr and Sebastian Wilkins returning for next season, a significant retention of talent and culture and experience.

This is a substantial achievement. Ngongba and Sarr were mocked as first-rounders on some 2026 drafts. The others would have been in high demand had they entered the portal.

Which they didn’t.

It’s not just money, it’s not just The Brotherhood, it’s not just being on national TV in the highest-profile games, although these are all factors.

I once asked Greg Koubek what was Mike Krzyzewski’s greatest virtue. His answer was Krzyzewski’s ability to articulate a vision and get people to buy into that vision, completely and totally.

I think Jon Scheyer has inherited some of this. These guys know where they fit in, what is expected of them and what they can expect from Duke. The most important thing is opportunity. Opportunity for NIL, opportunity for playing time, opportunity for winning games, opportunity for winning championships.

Scheyer added a trio of transfers from the portal.

With Cam Boozer (22.5 ppg) and Evans (15.0 ) off to the NBA, Duke needed some scoring and they got that in John Blackwell, a wing who averaged 19.1 points per game last season at Wisconsin.

This isn’t trying to project scoring from Holy Cross or Elon or some such but rather a B1G program that made the NCAA Tournament last season. He’s a scorer, a significant addition at a position of need.

At this writing Blackwell is still in the NBA draft. But he didn’t test or measure well in the combines and his scrimmages left something to be desired.

His dropping out of the draft seems like a formality at this point.

Blackwell may be the kind of guy UNC keeps getting, an Armando Bacot or R.J. Davis or Marcus Paige, someone good enough to be an outstanding college player without checking the NBA boxes.

Duke also added Drew Scharnowski from Belmont. He’s 6-9, 230 or so. He has flaws. He fouls a lot and he’s a sub-50% foul shooter. But he’s a plus athlete who can defend, rebound, rim run and knock a few heads together. He does not shy away from contact.

He went from “who’s that?” to Duke rotation player in about 48 hours.

Seriously. Jon Scheyer is an ambush predator.

Scharnowski is the replacement for Maliq Brown but is good enough to ramp up minutes if Ngongba has foot problems again.

The third transfer is Jacob Theodosiou, a 6-4 Canadian who played last season for Loyola of Baltimore. He’s likely a practice player but at least on paper an upgrade over Sheffield, Scott, Ufochukwu, Bates Jones, et. al. He averaged 13.1 points per game last season. He’s one of these guys who attended Duke basketball camps when he was younger.

Like I said, likely a practice player. But maybe Scheyer wants to insulate his team from injuries and a double-digit scorer, even one from the Patriot League, is another layer of insurance.

You’ve probably never heard of Nick Arnold. He’s about six-feet-tall and averaged 10.4 points and 4.3 assists per game last season at Lake Norman High School; that’s near Charlotte. He’s announced he’s playing for Duke on social media so I guess it’s legit.

A bigger Spencer Hubbard, let’s hope. Someone who will practice his derriere off with no guarantee of seeing the court much.

The final addition might be the most intriguing Duke recruit in recent memory. Maybe ever.

Scheyer has dipped his toes in the international pool, Tyrese Proctor, Khaman Maluach, Dame Sarr. Duke wanted to bring in a power forward to compete with Cam Williams and focused on Santa Clara’s Allen Graves. But Graves seems determined to stay in the draft and if he doesn’t, he’s from Louisiana and new LSU coach Will Wade seems prepared to load up a wheelbarrow of cash and deposit it at the bank of Graves’ choosing.

No one else in the portal made sense for Scheyer, same with the older prospects in the international pool.

Enter 16-year-old Joaquim Boumtje-Boumtje, all 7-0, 230-pounds of him.

If the name sounds familiar, you’re recalling his father Ruben. He played at Georgetown and played 44 games in the NBA. He’s currently the

Joaquim may not qualify as an international player. He’s a born-and-bred USA guy. But he’s spent the last few seasons playing for FC Barcelona’s

He’s big, he’s young, he’s raw and simply oozes potential.

Plus, he’ll be too young to enter the 2027 NBA draft.

He’ll be 17 soon and Duke has had some success with 17-year-olds; think Mike Gminski or Cooper Flagg.

Not putting any pressure on the kid or anything.

Cameron Williams, Deron Rippey, Jr., Bryson Howard and Maxine Meyer are the freshmen we all knew about and there’s a lot to talent in that group. A lot.

So, those are the ingredients. How will Scheyer the chef put them together?