The anticipation is high for the upcoming 2026-27 Duke basketball season. After how it ended last year, it feels like this team can’t get on the court soon enough.
Duke lost some top talent with Cameron Boozer, Isaiah Evans and Maliq Brown all heading to the NBA. While Duke welcomes in the top recruiting class and a good transfer portal class, it could be the key players returning that make a big difference.
Advertisement
Cayden Boozer, Dame Sarr, Patrick Ngongba II and Caleb Foster are all returning for the Blue Devils this season. All are important in their own way but one of the returners has been named as a breakout candidate.
College basketball analyst Jon Rothstein released his breakout candidate list for the upcoming ACC season. Sarr was one of five players to make the list joining Adrian Wooley (Louisville), Dante Allen (Miami), Sadiq White (Syracuse), and Chance Mallory (Virginia).
Sarr didn’t have a monster season offensively by any means but he was a force on the defensive end. He was named to the All-ACC Defensive Team as a freshman, showcasing his talent there. Even without a big offensive output, it doesn’t mean he can’t be good on that end.
The wing averaged just 6.4 points per game and shot 40 percent from the field. He did so averaging 23.5 minutes per game in his freshman season. Getting that output up this season could lead him to an even better year and even more recognition.
Advertisement
While we have to wait a bit to see Sarr on the floor, what he did this offseason is going to show us how good he can be. We are assuming that he was working a bit on his offensive game and how he can get better there.
Sarr will also likely start at small forward this season. Playing alongside guards Cayden Boozer and John Blackwell could give him more scoring looks to take advantage of.
If Sarr does breakout and improve, it should mean even better things for this Duke team as they look to rebound after a tough Elite Eight loss to UConn a year ago.
