NCAA Basketball: Who should be the No. 1 team to start the 2023-24 season?

Duke Blue Devils

When talking about individual talent level, it’s hard to say that there’s a team with more than Duke. They always have elite five-star prospects that end up going to the NBA, including two from last season, (Dereck Lively and Dariq Whitehead). Yet there could’ve been more that instead, elected to come back.

That includes returning leading scorer, Kyle Filipowski. He’s on all of the preseason All-American lists and for good reason. Senior center Ryan Young is back, along with starting forward, Mark Mitchell. And Tyrese Proctor and senior Jeremy Roach have the chance to be one of the best backcourts in all of NCAA Basketball this year.

By the way, Duke still brought in a top-2 incoming recruiting class. All four freshmen are five-star prospects, including guards Caleb Foster and Jared McCain, along with forwards Sean Stewart and TJ Power. If any of them were to break out and become pivotal pieces, it’s hard to see which teams can go head-to-head. And thanks to Roach and Young, there actually is some experience and leadership compared to the normally ultra-young Blue Devil rosters.

If Coach K was leading this team, I think Duke would’ve been the clear-cut No. 1 team to enter the season. But in year 2, Coach Jon Scheyer still has something to prove when it comes to his ability to win big games and take this program deep into March. That’s the only concern with them because everything else on this roster is covered.