Duke lands elite transfer portal guard John Blackwell, and its roster is coming together for next season The Duke Blue Devils probably won’t have a superstar freshman who doubles as the best player in the country for the 2026-27 season like they did the previous two years with Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer. That means Duke has real work to do in the transfer portal this season, and it landed its best piece yet on Wednesday afternoon by nabbing one of the top players available.
John Blackwell committed to Duke in the transfer portal per ESPN after deciding to leave the Wisconsin Badgers after three seasons. Blackwell was a three-star recruit who didn’t even place in the top-200 of the national recruiting rankings entering Wisconsin, but he exploded into one of the best guards in the Big Ten as a sophomore, and then took another step forward as a junior. Wisconsin won 51 games over the last two years and made a pair of NCAA tournament appearances with Blackwell as one of their lead players. Now he’s set to be the top option on the perimeter after choosing the Blue Devils over interest from Louisville, Illinois, and others.
We ranked Blackwell as the 44th best player entering the 2026 NCAA tournament. He averaged 19.1 points on per game on 59.3 percent true shooting this year by blending on- and off-ball versatility on offense and showing off a very good three-point shooting stroke and advanced mid-range game. Blackwell made 39 percent of the 241 threes he attempted this past season with 25 percent of those being unassisted, and also made 40 percent of his mid-range shots with more than 70 percent unassisted. The 6’4 guard is more of a scorer than a pure point, but he does a a good job suppressing turnovers as a ball handler. In general, he’s a guard who can handle high usage (25.6 percent last season), create a good look for himself, and rip threes while proving he can play alongside other stars the last two years next to John Tonje and Nick Boyd at Wisconsin respectively.
Duke had already landed a transfer portal commitment from 6’9 Belmont big man Drew Scharnowski. Star center Patrick Ngongba is also coming back to Duke instead of entering the NBA Draft, and will Cayden Boozer is back for his sophomore year, too. Duke almost certainly isn’t done adding to the roster, but it might have to wait for a few players to make decisions on the 2026 NBA Draft. Remember: Duke had a commitment from Cedric Coward this time last year before he won over pro scouts at the combine and eventually developed into a lottery pick and one of this year’s better rookies.
Let’s dive into what Duke has on the 2026-27 roster right now, plus the players they could still land.
Duke men’s basketball projected roster for 2026-2027 season
These are the players Duke has committed for next year if everyone returns. I’m just going to take a wild guess at the lineup.
Bench: F/C Drew Scharnowski, G Caleb Foster*, G Deron Ripley Jr., F Bryson Howard, C Maxime Meyer, F Sebastian Wilkins
The * next to a player’s name means they’re currently expected to return without an announcement yet. Sarr and Foster will both have big decisions that will go a long way toward shaping Duke’s roster.
Who else could Duke still land in the transfer portal?
The biggest name available for Duke or any school is Allen Graves. The Santa Clara forward declared for the 2026 NBA Draft, but it’s hard to say what his stock will look like right now. Graves was one of the most productive players in the country on a per-minute basis, but he also didn’t play a ton of minutes because of constant foul trouble. The 6’9 forward is a defensive ballhawk with a five percent block rate and 4.9 percent steal rate, and he also hit 40 percent of his three-pointers this past season. He’s an elite rebounder with crazy hands, a non-stop motor, and a true nose for the ball on both ends. I would take him with a first-round pick this year, but it’s likely Duke or Kentucky or anyone else would offer him more money to return to college and prove his stock against better competition in a bigger role.
Could Duke still land Iowa State transfer Milan Momcilovic if he doesn’t stick in the draft? Is there another high-profile player coming? It’s all possible. After falling in the Final Four with Flagg and the Elite Eight with Boozer, head coach Jon Scheyer needs a deep run in the tournament. He’s got his work cut out for him, but this is a strong start.
#Duke #lands #elite #transfer #portal #guard #John #Blackwell #roster #coming #season
The Duke Blue Devils probably won’t have a superstar freshman who doubles as the best player in the country for the 2026-27 season like they did the previous two years with Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer. That means Duke has real work to do in the transfer portal this season, and it landed its best piece yet on Wednesday afternoon by nabbing one of the top players available.
John Blackwell committed to Duke in the transfer portal per ESPN after deciding to leave the Wisconsin Badgers after three seasons. Blackwell was a three-star recruit who didn’t even place in the top-200 of the national recruiting rankings entering Wisconsin, but he exploded into one of the best guards in the Big Ten as a sophomore, and then took another step forward as a junior. Wisconsin won 51 games over the last two years and made a pair of NCAA tournament appearances with Blackwell as one of their lead players. Now he’s set to be the top option on the perimeter after choosing the Blue Devils over interest from Louisville, Illinois, and others.
We ranked Blackwell as the 44th best player entering the 2026 NCAA tournament. He averaged 19.1 points on per game on 59.3 percent true shooting this year by blending on- and off-ball versatility on offense and showing off a very good three-point shooting stroke and advanced mid-range game. Blackwell made 39 percent of the 241 threes he attempted this past season with 25 percent of those being unassisted, and also made 40 percent of his mid-range shots with more than 70 percent unassisted. The 6’4 guard is more of a scorer than a pure point, but he does a a good job suppressing turnovers as a ball handler. In general, he’s a guard who can handle high usage (25.6 percent last season), create a good look for himself, and rip threes while proving he can play alongside other stars the last two years next to John Tonje and Nick Boyd at Wisconsin respectively.
Duke had already landed a transfer portal commitment from 6’9 Belmont big man Drew Scharnowski. Star center Patrick Ngongba is also coming back to Duke instead of entering the NBA Draft, and will Cayden Boozer is back for his sophomore year, too. Duke almost certainly isn’t done adding to the roster, but it might have to wait for a few players to make decisions on the 2026 NBA Draft. Remember: Duke had a commitment from Cedric Coward this time last year before he won over pro scouts at the combine and eventually developed into a lottery pick and one of this year’s better rookies.
Let’s dive into what Duke has on the 2026-27 roster right now, plus the players they could still land.
Duke men’s basketball projected roster for 2026-2027 season
These are the players Duke has committed for next year if everyone returns. I’m just going to take a wild guess at the lineup.
Bench: F/C Drew Scharnowski, G Caleb Foster*, G Deron Ripley Jr., F Bryson Howard, C Maxime Meyer, F Sebastian Wilkins
The * next to a player’s name means they’re currently expected to return without an announcement yet. Sarr and Foster will both have big decisions that will go a long way toward shaping Duke’s roster.
Who else could Duke still land in the transfer portal?
The biggest name available for Duke or any school is Allen Graves. The Santa Clara forward declared for the 2026 NBA Draft, but it’s hard to say what his stock will look like right now. Graves was one of the most productive players in the country on a per-minute basis, but he also didn’t play a ton of minutes because of constant foul trouble. The 6’9 forward is a defensive ballhawk with a five percent block rate and 4.9 percent steal rate, and he also hit 40 percent of his three-pointers this past season. He’s an elite rebounder with crazy hands, a non-stop motor, and a true nose for the ball on both ends. I would take him with a first-round pick this year, but it’s likely Duke or Kentucky or anyone else would offer him more money to return to college and prove his stock against better competition in a bigger role.
Could Duke still land Iowa State transfer Milan Momcilovic if he doesn’t stick in the draft? Is there another high-profile player coming? It’s all possible. After falling in the Final Four with Flagg and the Elite Eight with Boozer, head coach Jon Scheyer needs a deep run in the tournament. He’s got his work cut out for him, but this is a strong start.
![Knicks and Nuggets Blow Big Leads: What Went Wrong in Game 2? | Deadspin.com Roughly 5,000 feet of elevation separate Denver and New York City.Still, gravity works the same regardless of where one stands. Just ask the NBA teams in both towns.“You get too high, and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself,” Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.That sensation went south on either side of the country Monday night.After squandering sizable leads that would have cemented commanding 2-0 advantages in their respective first-round playoff series, the Nuggets and Knicks now find themselves bracing for a fight.Should their opponents ultimately have their number, Denver and New York will look back with disdain on 19 and 14. Those were the Game 2 cushions the teams coughed up as the No. 3 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference.“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”Be that as it may, the Knicks did just that against the Atlanta Hawks. They controlled the outcome for much of the night and took a 12-point edge into the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 14.Then New York shot 5-for-22 from the floor in the final 12 minutes compared to 10-for-15 for Atlanta. Fighting through vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful, Hawks star CJ McCullom scored six straight points down the stretch during one key sequence on the way to a game-high 32.“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”New York’s melted at the same time. How many late possessions saw the Knicks pass or hold the ball around the perimeter before settling for subpar looks from 3-point range? The Knicks went 3-for-11 from deep as part of their flop.Denver led the Minnesota Timberwolves by 19 points early in the second quarter before crumbling. The Nuggets still were ahead by three points to start the fourth quarter but a combined 2-for-12 shooting effort from pillars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the final 12 minutes took a toll.“I feel like we had the game in hand, and then we just didn’t make our shots,” Murray said.As with the Knicks and Hawks, the reversal of fortunes stemmed both from the hosts’ miscues and an outstanding effort from a visiting player, as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards had 30 points.“Great leadership, positive,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that.”The Knicks and Nuggets no doubt sensed the need to amp up their own urgency as things started slipping away Monday.That neither could act upon it didn’t signal the end for either New York or Denver, of course. But now there’s unnecessary added weight for the climb back to the top. #Knicks #Nuggets #Blow #Big #Leads #Wrong #Game #Deadspin.com](https://i1.wp.com/lineup-publishing.s3.amazonaws.com/1776807037837?ssl=1 "Knicks and Nuggets Blow Big Leads: What Went Wrong in Game 2? | Deadspin.com Roughly 5,000 feet of elevation separate Denver and New York City.Still, gravity works the same regardless of where one stands. Just ask the NBA teams in both towns.“You get too high, and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself,” Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.That sensation went south on either side of the country Monday night.After squandering sizable leads that would have cemented commanding 2-0 advantages in their respective first-round playoff series, the Nuggets and Knicks now find themselves bracing for a fight.Should their opponents ultimately have their number, Denver and New York will look back with disdain on 19 and 14. Those were the Game 2 cushions the teams coughed up as the No. 3 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference.“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”Be that as it may, the Knicks did just that against the Atlanta Hawks. They controlled the outcome for much of the night and took a 12-point edge into the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 14.Then New York shot 5-for-22 from the floor in the final 12 minutes compared to 10-for-15 for Atlanta. Fighting through vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful, Hawks star CJ McCullom scored six straight points down the stretch during one key sequence on the way to a game-high 32.“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”New York’s melted at the same time. How many late possessions saw the Knicks pass or hold the ball around the perimeter before settling for subpar looks from 3-point range? The Knicks went 3-for-11 from deep as part of their flop.Denver led the Minnesota Timberwolves by 19 points early in the second quarter before crumbling. The Nuggets still were ahead by three points to start the fourth quarter but a combined 2-for-12 shooting effort from pillars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the final 12 minutes took a toll.“I feel like we had the game in hand, and then we just didn’t make our shots,” Murray said.As with the Knicks and Hawks, the reversal of fortunes stemmed both from the hosts’ miscues and an outstanding effort from a visiting player, as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards had 30 points.“Great leadership, positive,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that.”The Knicks and Nuggets no doubt sensed the need to amp up their own urgency as things started slipping away Monday.That neither could act upon it didn’t signal the end for either New York or Denver, of course. But now there’s unnecessary added weight for the climb back to the top. #Knicks #Nuggets #Blow #Big #Leads #Wrong #Game #Deadspin.com")
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