NCAA Basketball: Reevaluating preseason top 25 power rankings of 2022-23 season

7. Duke (27-9, 5-seed, Round of 32)

The retirement of Mike Krzyzewski was certainly significant and a major question in the offseason was how Jon Scheyer would handle the transition as the new head coach. With Duke adding the nation’s top recruiting class, there was no shortage of expectations for the Blue Devils even with all these changes. Nobody expected Duke to set the world on fire right away under Scheyer, but there’s a bevy of young talent on this team, even if things didn’t exactly go their way early in the season.

A November win against Xavier looked much better as the season progressed, but the Blue Devils didn’t really have a great win until late in the year. They lost blowouts against Purdue, NC State, and Miami and were legitimately struggling early in ACC play. Kyle Filipowski had a great season, but some of the other freshman prospects took a bit longer to get going this year. Fortunately, things seemed to click late for the Blue Devils, as Duke ended the regular season on a 9-game winning streak, including an ACC Tournament championship.

After obtaining a 5-seed in the Big Dance, Duke made quick work of Oral Roberts, one of the prime upset picks, in a 23-point win. Unfortunately, the Blue Devils were outdone by Tennessee in the second round, falling by double-digits against a very tough defensive squad of Volunteers, scoring a season-low 52 points to end the year. That finish to the year was great, but this was certainly a step down with all things considered for the Blue Devils; now they’ll wait and see which of their young pieces return next year and what Scheyer learns from his first season in the top chair.