Listen to The Devil's Den Podcast for all the latest news and notes surrounding Duke Basketball and Football.

Josh, Dustin, and Raul are joined by John Watson of The Devil's Den to react to Duke's 96-71 exhibition win over University of Central Florida in The Brotherhood Run. They discuss Cam Boozer's dominant performance, Isaiah Evans' shot diet, Nikolas Khamenia's fearlessness, Darren Harris as a "program guy," and whether playing Boozer and Ngongba together will work longterm. 

Then they get John's insight on the developing 2026-27 recruiting class. Duke just landed a commitment from #12 ranked wing, Bryson Howard. What can he add to the team and who else might join him? How is this impacted by potential returning players from this year's team? 

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The Devil's Den: A Duke Athletics Podcast

Episode 325 - UCF Reaction and Recruiting Updates 

Josh and Raul are joined by Brendan Marks of The Athletic to talk about what to expect from the 2025-26 Duke Blue Devils. Topics discussed include: 

  Why Duke can get back to the Final Four 

  Biggest areas of concern for the team 

  Possible surprise "leaps" from returning players 

  The importance of Darren Harris as an off-ball shooter 

  The battle for minutes at the 3 position 

  Jon Scheyer's evolution as an offensive coach 

  How Scheyer will approach the difficult early season schedule 

  The need to be better than last year in clutch situations 

  Duke's position in the ACC hierarchy 

You can find Brendan's writing, including articles mentioned in this podcast, here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/brendan-marks/

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Episode 324 - Brendan Marks  of The Athletic 

Josh, Dustin, and Raul react to this year's Countdown to Craziness. Topics discussed include: 

  Jayson Tatum being in attendance and what Coach Scheyer means when he says Tatum is going to be "helping out" with the team this season

  Best player intros  

  The inclusion of a 3pt contest 

  The move to an Elam ending in the scrimmage 

  Overall takeaways in terms of pace and style of play 

  The potential to space the floor from all five positions 

  Caleb Foster as lead guard

  Darren Harris as high level rotation player 

  The quiet production of Cameron Boozer 

  The passing of the frontcourt 

  Dame Sarr's best role on offense 

  Nikolas Khamenia's intensity 

  Recruits in attendance

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Episode 323 - Countdown to Craziness Reaction 

Josh, Dustin, and Raul ramp up for this year's Countdown to Craziness, Duke's annual variety event that kicks off the season. They discuss who will have the best player intro, who will be the scrimmage's leading scorer, and who will be this year's surprise performer. 

After that, they answer some questions about the 2025-26 regular season. Topics include: 

  Reasons why Duke will win the national championship 

  The team's biggest weakness or need 

  Duke's most consistent eight-man rotation 

  Weirdo lineup you'd like to see 

  Biggest X-factor 

  One off-the-wall prediction 

  Player most likely to overachieve relative to expectations, a la Jared McCain or Kon Knueppel in previous seasons 

[Closing music courtesy of Leo Moracchioli ]

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Episode 322 - Countdown to Countdown 

Josh, Dustin, and Raul cover the second half of the tough marquee games on Duke's non-conference schedule.  Will Duke be able to protect homecourt against the defending national champions, the Florida Gators? Will they be able to add to Duke's 15-3 winning margin over the Michigan State Spartans, or will a hostile road environment be too much to overcome? Does Texas Tech have the best roster to threaten Duke? How will Cameron Boozer match up with NPOY candidate J.T. Toppin? Will Elliott Cadeau, now of the Michigan Wolverines, continue his beef with Patrick Ngongba? 

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Episode 321 - Non-Conference Preview, Pt. 2

In the first of two episodes, Josh, Dustin, and Raul review Duke's loaded slate of non-conference games. They start by looking at the exhibition matchup at Tennessee before discussing Duke's first game of the season vs. Texas, a tough battle vs. Kansas, and a Thanksgiving game against Arkansas in Scheyer's home area of Chicago. 

Can Duke go 4-0 across these games? How much will Scheyer use the exhibition game to test out lineups and tinker? Who guards Nate Ament? How will Duke's backcourt fare against a tough slate of guards? Can Scheyer get his first win over Bill Self? How does Duke contain Darryn Peterson? Can Duke get revenge for the loss at Arkansas in Scheyer's first season? Does playing on the friendly neutral courts of Charlotte, NYC, and Chicago help Duke? 

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The Devil's Den: A Duke Athletics Podcast

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