EXPERIENCE: Duke Hoops Return Pat Ngongba, Caleb Foster & Dame Sarr With Hopes to DOMINATE March

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**JJ Jackson** (1:14)
The adage says that experience wins in March. I've got good news for Duke. They've got plenty of it going into the new season.

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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** (1:37)
Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Blue Devils Podcast. My name is JJ Jackson. So great to have you here with us today on Tuesday, August 4th, 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, I've got my good pal Hugh Straine from Duke Blue Devils on SI to talk about what's happening with the Stuke basketball team, returning loads of experience. And a little bit later, we'll get into some touchdown scores to expect for the Blue Devils on the grid iron this season. So much fun to discuss as we run throughout today's show. So without further ado, let's get right to it as Hugh Straine joins us on the program. Great to see you once again, my friend. And like I said in the teaser there, experience wins in March. For the first time in a while, Duke feels pretty good about some of the experience guys they've got returning.

**Hugh Straine** (2:28)
Yeah, good to be back as always, JJ. And I mean, yeah, we're in the new kind of NIL era of college sports. There's just there's very little evidence into what the right roster makeup is, right? There in terms of building through transfers, through continuity, you know, in terms of building through transfers, you can look at a Kentucky or Louisville last year. And that operation didn't work. But then you look at Michigan, the first all transfer starting five to win a national title. But I think one thing's pretty clear is that continuity matters. And it's something that Duke over the last couple of years hasn't really had at a premium. And this year it does. It's returning three starters, four of its top six scores. That just sort of almost feels like the baseline for an elite team to be able to contend for a national title. And beyond that, Duke is returning critical pieces. It's returning its big man in Pat Ngongba, who is the biggest breakout on the entire team last season. It's returning a senior point guard in Caleb Foster, who his box score numbers probably won't jump, but he will be one of the most impactful players on this team. And then you got a guy like Kayden Boozer coming off the bench. You got Dame Sarr turning into one of the biggest breakout candidates in all of America. So there's a lot to like, not just the fact that Duke brought guys back, but it's which guys it brought back, how it sort of navigated this off season, brought back what it needed.
And as a result, Duke's got a rotation that that's up there with the best in the country.

**JJ Jackson** (3:48)
Yeah, that's a good point. Like who is coming back? Cause there have been years where you do have guys coming back, but they only play four or five minutes a game, or maybe they're your walk on to guys not getting into the action. Whereas if it's guys who have been in big moments down the stretch in their career that are coming back and you're key returners, that's certainly going to help you win. The difference with this year's team and last year's team is that key, bringing in a transfer and John Blackwell, who was so impressive at Wisconsin. And now you look to him to be one of your leaders in addition to Foster and Ngongba and Sarr and Kayden Boozer and some of those big time players from a year ago.