Kon Knueppel didn’t lean into recency bias when asked to build an all-time Duke basketball starting five.
In a recent conversation with Barstool Sports college hoops insider Marty Mush, the 21-year-old sharpshooter from Wisconsin laid out his lineup, and the newest Blue Devil in the group goes all the way back 20 years. “I'm going to go, full career, Bobby Hurley at the one, JJ Redick at the two, Grant Hill at the three, Shane Battier at the four, and Christian Laettner at the five,” Knueppel told Mush.
That five comes with serious championship pedigree. Hurley, Hill, and Laettner were teammates on Duke’s back-to-back national title teams in 1991 and 1992. Battier also has a ring, winning it all in 2001 while collecting the Naismith Award and a third straight NABC Defensive Player of the Year honor as a senior.
Redick is the lone name in Knueppel’s lineup without a national championship, but his case is just as loud. He still owns Duke’s all-time scoring record with 2,769 points and remains the program’s most prolific 3-point shooter with 457 makes from deep. He also won the 2005-06 Naismith Award as a senior.
Mush didn’t stop there. When he asked Knueppel for a sixth man, Knueppel went with Jay Williams, Battier’s backcourt partner on the 2001 title team. Williams spent three seasons in Durham before heading to the pros.
Every player in Knueppel’s starting five spent four seasons under Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, who retired after winning five national championships at Duke.
Knueppel’s own Duke run ended with a big year of his own. In Jon Scheyer’s third season leading the program, he averaged 14.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.0 steals for a Blue Devil team that went 35-4 and reached the Final Four. That performance made him the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, where the Charlotte Hornets took him.
He then finished second to former Duke teammate Cooper Flagg in the NBA Rookie of the Year race. Knueppel put up 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game while shooting 42.5 percent from 3-point range and setting an NBA rookie record with 273 made threes, helping the 2025-26 Hornets finish 44-38 for the franchise’s most wins since 2015-16.
And while Knueppel is already making his mark in the league, his family has another Duke connection in the pipeline. In late June, Wisconsin Lutheran High School power forward Kager Knueppel, the second of five brothers in the family, became the first 2027 prospect to commit to Duke. The five-star recruit is currently ranked No. 16 overall in the 247Sports 2027 Composite, up 36 spots since announcing for the Blue Devils, and he remains Duke’s only commitment in the 2027 class for now.
In Other News...
Duke Is Bringing A New Reality To Cameron Indoor
Dukes home floor is about to look a little different, as the university announced a new partnership with wealth management firm Edward Jones that will bring the companys logo onto the court at Cameron Indoor Stadium beginning in the 2026-27 season. The deal adds another layer to the changing business of college athletics, where brand placements have become part of the scenery even in a building as iconic as Cameron.
There is more to the arrangement than what will be seen on the floor. Duke said the partnership will also include financial education and counseling for student-athletes, a nod to the off-court side of college sports that schools now have to treat as seriously as recruiting and competition. Duke vice president and director of athletics Nina King pointed to the shared values between the university and Edward Jones, suggesting the relationship is as much about fit as it is about visibility. [Read more 🡒]
Duke Opener Will Reveal How Ready This New-Look Roster Really Is
The season opener will give this new-look roster its first real chance to show what it is, and Dukes coach made clear that the early weeks matter even more when a team is sorting through new personnel and trying to establish an identity. Fall camp brought plenty of competition, and the staff believes the defensive group has carried a renewed sense of urgency compared with a year ago, which should at least give the Blue Devils a firmer baseline as the games begin to count.
At the same time, the first game will also reveal how much stability Duke has found on offense after naming Walker Eget its starting quarterback. The line has already taken a hit with Roman Fina set to miss the season because of a lower-body injury suffered in camp, so the opener will be about more than just execution. It will show how quickly the Blue Devils can absorb a few early roster changes and still settle into something recognizable. [Read more 🡒]
Dukes Rebuilt Secondary Just Sent A Clear Message Before Tulane
Dukes offseason overhaul in the back end looks ready to matter right away, with the Blue Devils set for their first regular-season test against Tulane after last falls ACC championship run. Manny Diaz spent the spring and summer reworking a roster that lost pieces in the secondary, and the early depth chart offered a first real glimpse of how the new look might function once the games start counting.
The most notable takeaway is the amount of trust already being placed in the newcomers. Transfers Kyon Loud and Dylan Flowers are expected to be central to the pass defenses next chapter, a sign Duke believes it has found answers quickly enough to keep the unit steady despite the turnover. How that group holds up against Tulane will be one of the earliest hints about whether the Blue Devils retooled defense is ready for the next step. [Read more 🡒]