Duke continues its recruiting success with the commitment of the Boozer Twins

During his 42 years as Duke's head coach, Mike Krzyzewski established the Blue Devils as arguably the best men's basketball program in the country. Krzyzewski won more than 78% of his matches and five national titles. He regularly signed top recruiting classes and sent players to the NBA.

When Krzyzewski retired in 2022, the Blue Devils hired Jon Scheyer, a former Duke player and assistant. Scheyer has never led Duke to a Final Four in his two seasons at the helm, but he has continued the program's success in attracting talent.

On Friday, the Blue Devils received commitments from high school seniors and twins Cameron and Cayden Boozer, whose father Carlos is a former Duke All-American and 13-year NBA veteran. Cameron Boozer is the No. 2 recruit in the high school class of 2025, according to the 247Sports Composite, while Cayden is ranked No. 21.

Cameron, a 6-foot-9 power forward, and Cayden, a 6-foot-4 point guard, have dominated at the high school level. They won three straight Nike EYBL Peach Jam titles and three state titles at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami. They also won gold medals at the FIBA ​​U17 World Championship in July, where Cameron was the most valuable player and Cayden led the team in assists.

At Duke, too, they join a program that is used to winning, although the Blue Devils have reached just one Final Four (2022) since winning their last national title in 2015.

Still, Duke is still a destination for top recruits. This year, the Blue Devils have the best freshman class in the country, according to the 247Sports Composite, with No. 1 Cooper Flagg, No. 4 Khaman Maluach, No. 13 Isaiah Evans, No. 18 Kon Knueppel and No. 21 Patrick Ngongba II.

Flagg, a 6-foot-10 forward who impressed in practice against the U.S. Olympic team this summer, is projected to be the No. 1 pick in next year's NBA draft, according to The Athletic's Sam Vecenie, who released his mock draft on Thursday be. Vecenie also projects Knueppel (No. 9) and Maluach (No. 20) as first-round picks. And he has two other Duke players as second-round picks: junior guard Tyrese Proctor (No. 41) and guard Sion James (No. 52), a Tulane graduate.

Since 2011, Duke has had 20 players selected as first-round NBA draft picks after their freshman season, including No. 1 overall pick Kyrie Irving (2011), Zion Williamson (2019) and Paolo Banchero (2022). Cameron and Cayden Boozer could join that list, although their initial focus will be on winning another high school state championship and then an NCAA title at Duke.

In addition to the Boozers, 247Sports analyst Travis Branham reported Friday that Duke is also targeting two other top recruits in the 2025 class: No. 4 Nate Ament, a 6-foot-10 power forward from Virginia, and No. 27 -Rank Nikolas Khamenia, a 1.90 meter tall striker from California.

Next spring, the Blue Devils will also likely be looking at the transfer portal, just like every other college program these days. Duke has mostly avoided adding transfers, preferring to target elite high school recruits, but the Blue Devils changed course somewhat last offseason. This year's team has five transfers in James, forward Maliq Brown (Syracuse), winger Cameron Sheffield (Rice), forward Mason Gillis (Purdue) and forward Neal Begovich (Stanford).

The Blue Devils should be the favorite to win the Atlantic Coast Conference title and could contend for the NCAA title. They sit eighth in ESPN's preseason rankings, while Flagg in particular could make an immediate impact. In fact, 36% of more than 100 Division 1 coaches surveyed by CBS Sports this summer named Flagg as the best college basketball player, a higher percentage than any other player in the country.