UNSTOPPABLE DEPTH: Duke Basketball's Lofty Hype Soars as Jojo Boumtje Boumtje DOMINATES Roster Talk

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is The Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day.

**JJ Jackson** (0:11)
The schedule is starting to get put into place for Duke Basketball, and this team lofty expectations, but I think they're going to be able to accomplish a whole lot. Let's get going. It's Locked On Blue Devils.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:28)
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** (0:39)
Hello everybody. Welcome into another episode of The Locked On Blue Devils Podcast. My name is JJ Jackson. So great to have you here with us today on this Tuesday, July 28th, 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'm really excited. My buddy Ben McCormick from Duke Wisdom is going to be here. We've got to talk about these outrageously lofty expectations. Once again, for Duke going into the season, the hype is at an all-time high. The schedule is going to be incredibly tough for Duke in the non-conference. So many things that we will be able to discuss throughout the course of today's show.
As we bring my pal Ben McCormick on into the program, it is great to see you once again. Hard to believe it, dude. We are in the last week of July, and here we are starting to get some footage out for Duke basketball, man.

**Ben McCormick** (1:31)
Yeah, man, they're looking good. I'm excited. I mean, this is like the deepest team I've seen at Duke. This is like 2015 Kentucky type odds, except that they're going to finish the job. They're not going to come up short, but I'm really excited about it.

**JJ Jackson** (1:45)
Yeah, it's almost like, obviously, this time of year, I mentioned, dude, it's the last week of July. Football season will be here before we know it. We're going to be looking forward to seeing what exactly this basketball team's able to look like. And so we're desperate to see content and to see these guys meshing and gelling together. And we're seeing pictures of them at a pool party and cookouts and all the things.
But the more we get, the more these expectations are only going to be continuing to grow, right?

**Ben McCormick** (2:15)
Yeah, I mean, we're at the point of the basketball season when people really are talking about it. They're like, oh, they're getting along together, you know? They're becoming friends. Like, that's the stuff we're talking about. It's like, and what that is important. I mean, and I think they are, obviously.
It's funny because, like, there's so many, like, weird spells in the offseason. But this team, man, there's so much to look forward to. They're like, I'm finally picking things in the offseason because, like, I really believe in this team, which is weird because we haven't seen blood.

**JJ Jackson** (2:47)
Yeah, no, but I think it's a team that's obviously got size. That's been a staple for Jon Scheyer over the last few seasons. And then just the blend of youth and then the experience that you're getting. You bring in a transfer star like John Blackwell, veteran leaders like Caleb Foster and Patrick Gongba. We're calling Dame Sarr a leader at this point as just a young sophomore. And then these freshmen and how good they're set to be for Duke this season.

**Ben McCormick** (3:15)
Well, talk about that size, man. I mean, on Go Duke, they got the heights up now.
I'm not buying some of these heights. I don't think Jojo's 7'2, man.
I'm not going to lie, but I like the optimism on his height. But it's crazy that when you look at how big this team really is, you've got like six dudes maybe that are like 6'10 plus. Like if you go down the whole of the roster, you got Max Mayer, if he's that tall, you know, Pat, Drew, Jojo, Cam. I mean, it's crazy, honestly, it's nuts. Like there are lineup combinations that Duke could go with where they could put Cameron Williams at the 3 and Dame Sarr at the 2 You could be running a 6'9 guy at Shooting Guard in college. And that's absurd. I mean, that should make every other team in the country just quiver to think about that kind of positional size Yeah, that's like NBA level positional size.

**JJ Jackson** (4:09)
And Duke's got that to their advantage this season. I mean, you're right. The sizes are certainly eye opening. And this is also in fact, when Duke has guards under 6'5, right? Cause Deron Rippey Jr., John Blackwell, those are guys that aren't fitting typical mold that we've seen over the last few seasons. When you think about a Foster and a Kated Boozer and a Tyrese Proctor and just these like really tall guards that John Scheyer has blended. So you've got a ton of size in the front court and still at the guard position. But we're finally getting to see some of those smaller guards be able to add into the mix as well.