Duke begins a new season Tuesday with the kind of expectations that come only after a run like last year’s. The Blue Devils won both the ACC regular season and tournament titles, then pushed all the way to the Elite Eight before finishing 27-9 and No. 5 in the final AP poll. Now they’re back at No. 4 in both the AP and USA Today/WBCA preseason rankings, and the league’s coaches and Blue Ribbon Panel have picked them to repeat as ACC champions.
The opener comes at home against Green Bay, the 2026 Horizon League champion. It’s only the second meeting between the programs, with the first coming Jan. 2, 1991, when Duke beat the Phoenix 70-59 in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Kara Lawson’s team has been reliable in these spots. Duke is 5-1 in season openers under Lawson, with the only loss coming against No.
16 Baylor in Paris, France last season. The Blue Devils also haven’t dropped their first game in Cameron since a conference loss to Virginia Tech on Nov.
17, 1998.
This group looks a lot like the one that just powered Duke through a title season, but there are some important additions in the mix. The Blue Devils return three starters and nine players from last year’s ACC championship team, and they also get 2025 fourth-ranked recruit Emilee Skinner back from injury.
Lawson added Texas transfer Aaliyah Crump, the No. 5 recruit in the 2025 class, and a freshman group that drew plenty of attention. Autumn Fleary, Bella Flemings, Sanai Green and Taylor Sofilkanich make up a class ranked fourth by ESPN.
The preseason recognition has already started rolling in. Toby Fournier landed on the Preseason All-ACC team and received the second-most votes behind Preseason Player of the Year Hannah Hidalgo. Fleary and Flemings were both named to the Preseason All-ACC Freshman Team, and Duke was the only school with two players on that six-player group.
Fournier, Riley Nelson, Jadyn Donovan and Arianna Roberson also showed up on various Naismith Starting 5 Watch Lists. Fournier is on the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Women’s College Player of the Year Watch List, the Katrina McClain Power Forward of the Year Watch List and The Athletic Preseason All-America Second Team.
Nelson is on the Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Watch List. Roberson is on the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Watch List.
Donovan is on the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year Watch List.
The schedule leaves little room to ease in. Duke’s non-conference slate includes five AP top 25 opponents, and four of the top six in the preseason poll are on the list: No.
1 UConn, No. 2 South Carolina, No.
3 Southern California and No. 6 Texas.
The Blue Devils also face No. 11 UCLA.
Only UConn and South Carolina are scheduled to play more preseason top-25 non-conference opponents, with the Huskies listed for nine and South Carolina for eight. Both of those teams will play 32 regular-season games, while Duke has 29.
The ACC adds even more ranked matchups. Five league teams are in the AP preseason top 25: No.
4 Duke, No. 7 Louisville, No.
12 North Carolina, No. 13 Notre Dame and No.
25 NC State. That gives Duke nine top-25 games once the season gets underway.
Fournier is also in line to keep climbing Duke’s record book. The Toronto native reached 1,000 points in her 66th career game, making her the fifth-fastest Blue Devil to hit that mark.
She trails Chris Moreland (50 games), Lexie Brown (53), Alana Beard (56) and Katie Meier (62). Fournier already has 117 blocks in two seasons, leaving her 15 shy of moving into 10th place ahead of Mistie Bass and 79 away from the top five.
She had 78 blocks last season.
She also enters the year with 823 career points and needs 177 more to become the 40th Blue Devil to reach 1,000. She finished last season with 396.
In Other News...
Duke Won Big But This Didnt Look Like A Title Threat
Duke opened its season with a lopsided win over Army, but the performance came with enough rough edges to keep the early optimism in check. The Blue Devils leaned on defense to create separation, as Armys zone slowed the offense and made the game look far less comfortable than the final margin suggested. Dame Sarr led the way with 16 points, while Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje gave Duke a useful debut with 15 points and 7 rebounds.
What stood out most was how uneven the offense looked against a team that was content to pack things in and make Duke work for every clean look. The Blue Devils struggled from three-point range, and John Blackwells quiet debut added to the sense that this was more a reminder of unfinished business than a statement win. For a roster with bigger goals, the defense was encouraging, but the attack still has to prove it can look sharper when opponents start making the game ugly. [Read more 🡒]
Manny Diaz Sees Dukes NC State Trip As Part Of A Bigger Problem
The ripple effects of N.C. States midseason coaching change reached Durham quickly, and Manny Diaz did not hide how much it bothered him. With the Wolfpack now under interim coach Todd Goebbel, Diaz framed the situation as part of a larger strain on college football, one where financial pressures keep rising and the sports competitive balance looks nothing like the NFLs more stable structure.
For Duke, the immediate task is still the same: prepare for a conference game against an opponent trying to steady itself in the middle of a turbulent season. But Diazs comments also served as a reminder that these matchups are increasingly being shaped by more than the scoreboard, with program expectations and player availability now carrying as much weight as the coaching change itself. [Read more 🡒]
Former Blue Devil Rodney Hood Is Back Around Duke Basketball
Rodney Hood is back around Duke basketball in a new role, with Jon Scheyer confirming during a press conference that the former Blue Devil and NBA veteran has joined the program as a coaching intern. It is another notable addition to a staff that continues to blend the programs past with its present, and it gives Hood a chance to start the next phase of his basketball career inside the same environment where he once played.
Duke is coming off a home win over Army and now turns to a stretch that includes Coastal Carolina and Michigan State, so Hoods timing puts him back in the middle of a team with immediate work ahead. For a program that has always valued connections to its former players, his return adds another familiar face to the sideline as the Blue Devils keep building toward the next challenge. [Read more 🡒]