No. 4 Duke is suddenly blowing out teams and dominating inside while staying unbeaten in ACC play

By Canadian Press on January 27, 2026.

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Duke coach Jon Scheyer entered January seemingly grappling a bit with exactly how to bring out the best from his remade roster.

He’s found answers as the fourth-ranked Blue Devils close the month in dominating fashion.

The Blue Devils are mauling teams with their frontline led by star freshman Cameron Boozer, both when it comes to scoring in the paint and attacking the glass. There’s been defensive improvement, too, with finding the right lineup combinations as well as tweaking the approach. And the Blue Devils are winning games in lopsided fashion, most recently by thumping No. 20 Louisville on Monday night to remain unbeaten in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I’ve said to you guys before in January: I feel you get a chance to really learn about the identity of your team and who we can be,” Scheyer said after the 83-52 win against the Cardinals. “That doesn’t mean winning or losing. I think it just means understanding the process and understanding the areas you have to grow and get better.”

There had been closer-than-expected wins against Georgia Tech, Florida State and an SMU team playing without top scorer Boopie Miller as league play began. But the past four games have stood out for the Blue Devils (19-1, 8-0 ACC), starting with a two-game cross-country trip for league play. It explains why the Blue Devils — with their past three wins by 30, 21 and 31 points — now have nine Quadrant 1 wins that headline a postseason résumé to tie top-ranked Arizona for most in the country as they head into Saturday’s trip to Virginia Tech.

It also shows the 38-year-old Scheyer’s willingness to adjust as the personality of his roster develops in his fourth season as successor to retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski.

“I mean, we’re definitely starting to get it going,” Boozer said. “We can still be a lot better.”

What’s working

Duke has leaned into its frontcourt edge with Boozer, the 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward who ranks among the national leaders in scoring (23.5 points per game); the 6-11, 250-pound Patrick Ngongba II; and the versatile 6-9, 225-pound defensive whiz Maliq Brown. That’s meant relentlessly attacking the interior or running offense through Boozer, who is a deft passer against collapsing pressure or double teams to set up teammates.

As a result, Duke has outscored California, Stanford, Wake Forest and Louisville in the paint by a combined 176-62 margin.

Additionally, the Blue Devils have outscored those four teams by a combined 68-25 in second-chance points. They outrebounded them by 15.5 per game, a margin that ranks best in the country for that span dating to the Jan. 14 win at Cal, according to SportRadar.

Along the way, the Blue Devils have ventured further from Scheyer’s preferred style of switching defensively. Scheyer has also talked about simplifying the game plan to “give these guys less,” allowing them to hone in on a shorter to-do list.

It all feels different from the perimeter-driven approach with last year’s Final Four team, led by Associated Press national player of the year and No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg and fellow lottery pick Kon Knueppel joining him on the wing.

“I never thought we’d be playing smash-mouth basketball as much,” Scheyer quipped after Saturday’s win against Wake Forest.

Overwhelming the Cardinals

The latest show came against the Cardinals, who feature a guard-driven roster for a team picked as the top challenger to the preseason ACC favorite Blue Devils.

Duke led by just one late in the first half before closing with a 9-0 spurt before the break, while Louisville struggled offensively all night and had a 3-for-22 stretch over 15-plus minutes spanning halftime.

“Got our butt kicked. That’s about the extent of my statement,” Louisville coach Pat Kelsey said before going on to repeat a variation of that blunt assessment roughly a dozen more times in his postgame news conference.

By the end of the night, Duke had posted numbers — 42-10 edge in points in the paint, 16-5 in second-chance points, 47-26 in rebounding — that are becoming a habit.

The Cardinals also shot just 29.6% while touted freshman Mikel Brown Jr. — considered a top NBA draft prospect — had a rough debut at Cameron Indoor Stadium by finishing with seven points on 1-for-13 shooting.

It was roughly three weeks ago that the Blue Devils went to Louisville and rallied from 12 down on the road by shooting 70.8% (17 of 24) in the second half of an 84-73 win.

The Duke team that won Monday night looks as though it has taken a leap.

“I felt like, man, they were locked in,” Kelsey said. “They were like, in two places at once. It felt like there was six of them out there at certain times.”

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Aaron Beard, The Associated Press