Know Your Foe: Duke
By: Dallas Bowlin
Senior Staff Writer/Editor/Host
All Vol Call In Show
December 3rd, 1975. That’s how far you have to go back to find the last time Tennessee played Duke inside Cameron Indoor, some 51 years ago. Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld were the stars of the day as the Vols beat the Blue Devils, 86-80.
October 20th is an exhibition, so while the final result may not matter in the grand scheme of things, this one means something to me personally. As what some may call a college basketball ‘sicko,’ it has been my dream to attend a game in Cameron Indoor. While I won’t be making this trip, unfortunately, seeing Tennessee play there, even if on television, is going to be cool.
Now, onto the meat and potatoes.
RETURNEES:
Dame Sarr, Caleb Foster, Cayden Boozer, Patrick Ngongba II.
LOSSES:
Cameron Boozer, Maliq Brown, Nik Khamenia, Isaiah Evans
SIGNIFICANT NEWCOMERS:
John Blackwell - Guard - Wisconsin transfer
Joaquim Boumtje-Boumtje - F/C - Freshman
Cameron Williams - Center - Freshman
Deron Rippey Jr. - Guard - Freshman
Drew Scharnowski - Forward - Belmont transfer
Bryson Howard - Guard - Freshman
Jacob Theodosiou - Guard - Loyola MD
TEAM SUMMARY:
Jon Scheyer is entering his fifth year at the helm, and while he may not be Coach K 2.0 (No one is), he has made the Elite Eight three straight years and the Final Four in 2025. Nothing to scoff at, but the history at Duke may still be putting pressure on, as making deep tournament runs is kind of the bare minimum there. They want National Championships. Being one behind North Carolina has to sting.
Analytically, the Blue Devils have stayed around the top of the country on KenPom outside of Scheyer’s first season. Even then, they finished 18th. In 2024, they finished 7th with an offensive rating of 121.6 (8th) and a defensive rating of 95.2 (16th). In 2025, they finished 1st with an offensive rating of 130.1 (1st) and a defensive rating of 90.8 (5th). In 2026, Duke finished 3rd with an offensive rating of 128.1 (6th) and a defensive rating of 90.7 (3rd).
On KenPom’s preseason rankings for the 2026-2027 season, the Blue Devils are 1st with a projected offensive rating of 125.1 (3rd) and a projected defensive rating of 90.7 (3rd).
As always, Duke has a group of tremendous freshmen on their team.
Joaquim Boumtje-Boumtje (For reading's sake, I will refer to him as JBB for the remainder of this article), a five-star prospect who is just 17 years old and stands at seven feet two inches tall with a 9-foot-4 standing reach. He’s a lefty, so you know he has an extremely soft touch on his shot. Adam Finklestein described him as a stretch five who can pick-and- pop.
Cameron Williams is another seven-foot-five star prospect who also has a soft touch and showcases the ability to stretch the floor. As “small ball” is appearing to slowly fade away, Duke has slid all of its chips into being just absurdly tall while also being absurdly versatile.
Deron Ripper Jr. is a five-star guard (I know, shocker) who chose Duke ultimately over Tennessee. At six-foot-four, he is an absolute hound on the ball defensively, just ask Belmont (more on that later) he showcases a promising shot from outside, shooting 34% in 3SSB play, but at his heart, he’s a down hill, put extreme pressure on the rim, driver.
Bryson Howard is shockingly just a four-star, but the somewhat undersized three makes up for his slight lack of height at the position with a near seven-foot wingspan. He shot 45% from three (of course, he’s also a lefty), but, like Rippey, can put a ton of pressure on the rim while driving downhill.
OFFENSE:
Like Tennessee’s previous exhibition opponent, Xavier, Duke runs a more player-driven offense with less structured sets. More read-and-react heavy. Duke’s guards are expected to make quick decisions on short rolls, dribble handoffs, and coming off ball screens to get downhill and attack the rim, or draw the defense in for a perimeter look.
Against Belmont, the Blue Devils' starting five consisted of Cayden Boozer, John Blackwell, Dame Sarr, JBB, and Patrick Ngongba II.
No one in that starting five is below six-foot-four, and they will use their height, length, versatility, and IQ to draw fouls and get easy looks at the foul line. Look no further than Dame Sarr, who looked like a potential lottery pick against the Bruins as he shot ten free throws on the night and converted on nine of them
You get a taste of just how versatile this Duke team is when JBB and Ngongba execute a little two-man game with a pick-and-roll: one seven-footer, and one near seven-footer. Boy, has the game evolved. JBB misses the easy two after receiving some contact, but this action is dangerous and can be a nightmare to guard.
Last season, Duke averaged 25.2 three-point attempts per game. That ranked 110th out of 360 Division I teams. They converted on 34.7% of those looks, which was 143rd in the country. Against Belmont, the Blue Devils attempted 25 three-point attempts ( on par with last season), converting 11 for 44% as a team.
Individually, Blackwell led the way in attempts with six and made two of those against Belmont. Last season at Wisconsin, Blackwell attempted seven three-pointers per game and converted 2.8 per game. Good for 38.9%.
JBB was right behind Blackwell, attempting five three-point field goals and converting on two. Again, this guy is seven-foot-two. Absurd.
DEFENSE:
The defensive side of the ball for Duke, I think Rick Barnes should be allowed to take some credit for. In the NCAA Tournament matchup against Duke in Scheyer’s first season, the Vols absolutely punked Scheyer’s Blue Devils. I think that lit a fire into Scheyer and made him determined to build a program that emphasises aggressive play on the defensive end. That aggressiveness showed its head against Belmont.
Duke held the Bruins to 34.4% from the field and 23.3% from behind the arc. This Belmont team is no slouch, either. They are most likely a tournament team under first-year head coach Evan Bradds, who was an assistant on multiple professional teams, including the Boston Celtics and the Utah Jazz, before being on Duke’s staff last season and being hired on as Belmont’s lead man this past offseason. Belmont has some very good offensive pieces. Duke just shut them down with length and unrelenting pressure.
Scheyer’s squad forced 17 Belmont turnovers and scored 20 points off of them.
Switching and help-side defense led to the Bruins being stonewalled multiple times.
Individually, freshman Deron Rippey Jr. is a dog defensively. Fighting through screens to stay stuck to his man and just dogging his guy all game long. I won’t overrun you with clips here, but watch as Rippey has the Belmont offense figuratively in hell.
HOW TENNESSEE CAN WIN:
I really think Tennessee can win this game, and I think they can do so by doing something Belmont couldn’t.
This is no shade at all on Belmont; they’re probably my second-favorite CBB team. But the talent differential between Belmont and Duke, let's face it, was as wide as the Grand Canyon. I’m in no way saying Tennessee has the same caliber of talent as Duke. The Blue Devils have two players who could be future number-one picks, for goodness ' sake. But Tennessee does have the talent to go toe-to-toe and make things interesting. I say all of that to say this: If Tennessee can drag JBB, Cameron Williams, and Ngongba out of the paint with either ball screens, pick-and-pop action, and spread the defense out enough, they have the athleticism and talent to get downhill and finish around the rim.
Secondly, and this part kind of ties into the first, but if Dai Dai Ames, Terrence Hill Jr., and Juke Harris can use their crafty skill set to get the Duke guards into foul trouble, that puts a TON of pressure on the young big men to grow up fast against a Tennessee backcourt with some true firepower.
Finally, and this may be the most important aspect of the game for Tennessee, and maybe even the hardest to execute with a group that is new and learning to play defense the way Coach Barnes expects: Don’t foul. That doesn’t mean play soft defense, but play aggressively while moving your feet and taking away as much space as possible.
HOW DUKE CAN WIN:
As good as the Vols backcourt is (on paper at least), the frontcourt has a lot of questions surrounding it both offensively and defensively. With Vanderbilt transfer Jaylen Washington currently ineligible as of this writing, Miles Rubin, Braedam Lue, and DeWayne Brown will be tasked with a lot early on. The ability to protect the rim will be crucial, as will rebounding. If the uber-talented frontcourt of Duke can take advantage of Tennessee’s lack of depth in the post, it could cause problems for the Big Orange.
As mentioned earlier, baiting the Vols into being a little too aggressive on defense will bring reward to Duke at the free-throw stripe. If the Blue Devils can draw fouls and get to the line consistently against Tennessee, that would bring them closer to victory.
Calling back to Tennessee’s frontcourt woes, if Duke can slow or hamper the explosive guards + DeWayne Brown and force Lue, Rubin, and others into becoming more than just lob and offensive rebound threats, I think they would live with it. Even if they answer the call.
PREDICTION:
This one is hard to predict. If Tennessee goes into it to win and play the best basketball possible, I think they can come out victorious. However, history shows us winning isn’t at the top of Rick Barnes’ priority list in these exhibitions. Development and lesson teaching are. He cares more about finding out who fits where and trying out some unique lineups.
Therefore, I think Duke wins this one by a slight margin.
DUKE - 82 | TENNESSEE - 75
Comments