NCAA Basketball: Way-too-early top-25 power rankings for 2021-22 season

For this piece, we’re going to assume that star forward and leading scorer Matthew Hurt will be moving on to the NBA Draft. That would mean that the team’s top three scorers (Jalen Johnson and DJ Steward) will be gone. Two other key pieces transferred out this offseason in point guard Jordan Goldwire and former top-40 forward Jaemyn Brakefield.

The good news is that Duke does bring back a good amount of talent. Wendell Moore had a brutal start to this past season but rebounded to get back into the rotation. Point guard Jeremy Roach is set to return as well, giving the team a more experienced player with plenty of talent. And 7’0 freshman center Mark Williams really came into his own in the final few games of the season and will be a breakout candidate for 2021-22.

Then there is the next batch of five-star freshmen for the Blue Devils. They recently landed top-20 shooting guard Trevor Keels to replace Steward at the two-spot, while top-10 prospect AJ Griffin is an elite combo forward that will do what Johnson did while hopefully staying all year.

And last but least is Paolo Banchero, a top-3 forward with Player of the Year potential. For Duke to be a national title contender, they usually have a freshman that’s a national star. No offense to Hurt but he didn’t fit that category. Banchero can and if he plays at that level, this team can win the ACC title.

And if they happen to land one more five-star prospect named Patrick Baldwin Jr., they’ll be a top-3 good and a clear title contender. But that will depend on the leap Roach makes as a lead guard in the offense.