As Duke basketball sophomore guard Cayden Boozer pointed out last week on The Brotherhood Podcast when reflecting on a 102-62 home exhibition win over the Belmont Bruins earlier this month, the talent-rich 2026-27 Blue Devils are "not a team that has bad blood for each other." Well, that theme of sharing sincere joy in each other's success again showed up clear as day in their next preseason outing, Tuesday night's 103-64 home blowout over the Tennessee Volunteers.
Wild bench celebrations. Fist bumps all over the court. High fives. Pats on the back. Positive finger pointing galore. You name it, the Duke basketball players displayed it while 11 of the 13 who saw action in the contest ended up tallying at least a couple of points, with six reaching double digits in the scoring column.
So, how has fifth-year Blue Devil head coach Jon Scheyer and his staff managed to develop the current bunch into such an unselfish, unified unit this early in the process?
"We preach it, but at the end of the day, you can't force that," Scheyer explained to Duke Blue Devils On SI during his press conference following the victory over the Volunteers . "That's something that has to come from within. And I think our vets set the tone. I mentioned the example of Cayden and John [Blackwell]. I could say the same thing for Dame [Sarr]. I could say the same thing for Pat [Ngongba]. You know, [freshman Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje] as a young guy with that group.
"None of those guys forced shots. They were all efficient. And I think that sets the tone. I love how that is. We've got to be that way when we're not winning too. We've got to be that way when things aren't going our way. But the fact that we have it in us is great."
John Blackwell, one of the top transfer portal prizes in the country after averaging 19.1 points per game as a junior for the Wisconsin Badgers last season, has totaled 35 points across only 47 minutes as a starter in the exhibition wins over Belmont and Tennessee. Between those two games, he boasts a team-high plus/minus of +62, meaning Duke has outscored its preseason opponents by an average of 1.3 points per minute when the 6-foot-5, 205-pound Michigan native has been on the floor.
However, in the locker room following his latest veteran performance, Blackwell was more than happy to shift the attention to teammates and talk about the roots of the Blue Devils' impressive early camaraderie.
"I think it just started in the offseason - with us hanging out, us kicking it, doing things together," Blackwell recounted to Duke Blue Devils On SI, later citing a team trip to Wilmington in September, his workouts alongside freshman guard Deron Rippey Jr. in Los Angeles earlier in the offseason, and a few more bonding times in various places with his teammates. "When you end up loving these guys off the court, you take so much joy in their success.
"When we see that on the court, we've got so much joy in each other's success, the sky's the limit for this team."
The Blue Devils look to bring that joy to Allen Fieldhouse when they square off in an exhibition road bout against the Kansas Jayhawks at 1 p.m. ET Sunday (ESPN). That matchup will conclude Duke's preseason slate before welcoming the Army Black Knights to Cameron Indoor Stadium for the team's regular season opener on Monday, Nov. 2, at 6:30 p.m. ET (ESPNU).
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/duke as Why Duke Basketball Players 'Take So Much Joy in Each Other's Success' .
