The Duke Blue Devils and head coach Jon Scheyer were just one win away from making it to the national championship last season. Unfortunately, they came up short to the Houston Cougars.
Heading into the offseason, it was expected that the program would lose both Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel. That has become a reality, as both freshman standouts have entered the 2025 NBA draft.
Scheyer needed to add more talent to the roster to keep Duke in contention for the 2025-26 college basketball season. On Wednesday, he was able to add another potential key piece.
As shared by the Blue Devils' official account on X, former Rice big man 24 has decided to commit to Duke after entering the transfer portal.
BREAKING: Rice transfer 6’11 Ifeanyi Ufochukwu has committed to Duke!Welcome to the brotherhood @iffy_gramz! pic.twitter.com/V91AeK8IaB
— Blue Devils (@BlueDevils) May 7, 2025
One of the big needs for next season was more size. The Blue Devils could not have asked for much more than the 6-foot-11, 240-pound frame Ufochukwu brings to the court.
Fans took to the comments section, reacting to the intriguing transfer portal addition for Duke.
"The last time Duke got a Nigerian big man transfer from Rice, they won a national championship," one fan wrote.
A second comment read, "Really nice pickup. With Ngongba and Brown having injury history, another big felt necessary to have as needed. Not expecting a ton of production, but great to have another large body on the team. Now bring Coward back and go get one more guard."
"Former college teammate of Cam Sheffield & former AAU teammate of Caleb Foster," a third comment said.
Another fan commented, "Wow.. duke finna be right back in the Final Four."
During the 2024-25 college basketball season with Rice, Ufochukwu played in 16 games, averaging 1.8 points and 0.6 rebounds per game in 3.3 minutes per contest.
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