ASCENDING: Duke Basketball and Jon Scheyer SECURES No. 2 AP Rank, Building PRESEASON Momentum

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This is the Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day.

JJ Jackson (0:11)

Friends, we finally have a preseason AP poll, and Duke viewed as one of the top teams in all of college basketball.

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Hi everybody, Duke Vytel. Hey, make sure you listen, man.

JJ Jackson (0:21)

The Locked On Blue Devils with JJ Jackson.

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He's awesome, baby.

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You are Locked On Blue Devils, your daily podcast on the Duke Blue Devils, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

JJ Jackson (0:41)

Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Blue Devils podcast. My name is JJ Jackson. It's so great to have you here with us today on Monday, October 19th, 2026 Locked On Blue Devils is your one-stop shop where we discuss everything going on inside the life of Duke Athletics. And on today's show, super excited to bring on one of our pals, Kevin Connelly from Ball Durham to talk about this Duke basketball team ahead of the new season, ahead of tomorrow night's exhibition at home against the Tennessee volunteers and so much more. You were at your place, the number one place to hear all things Duke basketball. Tons of conversation later in the week. We'll talk football after a disappointing loss over the weekend to the North Carolina Tar Heels, but a basketball focus today as Kevin joins us on the show. And we finally have an AP top 25 that we want to discuss. Last week, we talked about Duke being the number one team in all of college basketball and the Ken Palm rankings. They are number two in the AP poll as Florida claims the top spot. Kevin, great to see you once again. I hope you're doing well.

Kevin Connelly (1:50)

JJ, thanks for having me, doing great. And yeah, I'm not going to say we're here because it's not opening night just yet, but we're as close as we're going to get to the start of college basketball.

JJ Jackson (2:01)

Exactly. And so much so that we're going to get to see an exhibition game again tomorrow for Duke when they take on Tennessee. So I'm excited to get into that a little bit more with you in our program. But I do want to talk about Duke earning number two in the AP poll. Again, we talked about it a little bit last week. They're number one in Ken Palm. But it just feels so clear that this is a Duke squad that so many people do believe will be one of the very best in the entire sport.

Kevin Connelly (2:31)

No, 100%. And I said going back however many weeks and months we've talked about it, that their second five, if that was a starting group on a team, they would be in the top 25

And put the whole piece, all the pieces together, they end up being number two in the preseason poll. And it's great for us to talk about, for us to have a conversation about, to write about all this other stuff. But when it boils down to it, it doesn't matter. And I think especially this year, it matters even less because, you know, you look at Florida, for example, and I think Florida is a deserving number one team in the preseason poll. But like, what happens if some legislation comes down or something happens in the courts and like Denzel Aberdeen, who's supposed to be a great player for them? I know he didn't have a great exhibition game against Baylor in a game that Florida lost in overtime. What if he can't play?

You look at a team like Illinois, who's number three, or Arizona. And I don't know all these rosters off the back of my hand, but like, if they have an international guy or a fifth year guy that can't play, you keep going down the list and, you know, there could be a question with just about every team. You look at a Louisville, a St. John's, a Miami, like so many of these teams in the top 25 have questions about who is actually going to be on the roster when selection Sunday rolls around. Not forget just opening night because this is going to drag into the start of the season. We've even seen a little bit in college football drag into the start of the season, especially with the Indiana Hoosiers. I think a couple of defensive linemen now, you know, got the restraining order that they could play and then more legislation came down from, I think, an Indiana judge winning the case for the players instead of the NCAA. And if that went the other way, would their season be completely flipped? So it's great conversation, it's great banter, it's great excitement for the season. But I think this year more than any year, when you look at Ken Palm, when you look at the AP poll, even to an extent when you look at these conference preseason coaches or media polls, I think this year it means as little as it ever has.