DURHAM, N.C. — College basketball in August?

Why not? It’s Duke.

The Blue Devils opened up Cameron Indoor Stadium for a basketball practice Tuesday, giving students and fans their first look at what will be the 2025-26 team.

A year ago, the latest basketball wunderkind, Cooper Flagg, was the main attraction. The season ended in the NCAA Final Four at the Alamodome in San Antonio, with an excruciating loss to Houston in the semifinals. Flagg was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.

The 2025 Final Four banner hung over Coach K Court on Tuesday, a reminder of how the season’s journey can end. Then again, it was just the newest Final Four banner in an arena filled with them.

What did the 5,000 or so fans see?

Boozer twins take the stage

Cam and Cayden Boozer are the latest in the line of would-be stars, two talented freshmen coming to Duke to try and match the deeds of their father — Carlos Boozer, who helped the Blue Devils to the 2001 NCAA championship and left for the NBA an All-American.

Cameron Boozer is a big man at 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, with power in his game but also a nice outside touch. Cayden Boozer is the perfect complement, a smooth point guard who has good vision. All that often has been said about the two brothers, both five-star recruits from Miami.

Cayden Boozer, who inherited Flagg’s No. 2 jersey, also had some good competition Tuesday. The open practice had three eight-minute scrimmage segments and Boozer was matched up against junior Caleb Foster in each of the three. Both had their moments and the closed practices likely are intense between the two.

The second scrimmage session had an exciting ending that had the crowd roaring.

Offensive flair

After sophomore Darren Harris gave his team the lead with three straight free throws with 11 seconds left, Isaiah “Slim” Evans beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer for the “win.”

Nothing new there — at least, Evans shooting the 3. The sophomore from Fayetteville, who played at North Mecklenburg High School in Huntersville, made 62 last season, including six in the first half of Duke’s win over Auburn, and should be one of the ACC’s top shooting threats again this season.

Gone are Flagg, everybody’s All-America, along with Kon Knueppel, Tyrese Proctor, Sion James and Khaman Maluach, all to the NBA. They spurred a 35-4 season as the Blue Devils won the ACC’s regular-season title with a 19-1 record and then the ACC Tournament championship, even with Flagg spraining an ankle and being held out.

Duke coach Jon Scheyer, in the recent Devil’s Den Podcast, referred to 2024-25 as a “historic” offensive season, praising his team for valuing the basketball and “amazing” shot selection.

“They were all about the right stuff,” he said on the podcast.

Who’s new?

Scheyer said the Blue Devils then doubled down after the season and added positional size, versatility and skill.

Dame Sarr could be a nice add. The 6-8 freshman forward from Italy is slim but plays with polish. He also can shoot, knocking down 43% of his 3s playing last season in the Liga ACB in the top division of the Spanish basketball league.

Nikolas Khamenia was matched up against Cameron Boozer in much of the scrimmages and the 6-8 freshman from Los Angeles, another 5-star recruit, did not back down. Khamenia was a bit trigger happy from the perimeter, taking some 3s that were forced and not making them.

But it’s August. It was a first look. Official practice begins in late September with Countdown to Craziness on Oct. 3.

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