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Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer and his staff brought in another top-tier recruiting class last year, featuring five highly touted prospects: Cameron Boozer, Cayden Boozer, Dame Sarr, Nikolas Khamenia, and Sebastian Wilkins. Not all of them remained in Durham, however. Cameron Boozer is now an NBA rookie with the Memphis Grizzlies, and Khamenia transferred to the UConn Huskies, who ended the 2025-26 Blue Devils' season in the Elite Eight.
Still, retaining three of the five players from a class ranked No. 1 nationally is a solid outcome in the current era of college basketball. One of those returners, Sebastian Wilkins, redshirted last season while acclimating to the powerhouse program, even though his talent likely would have earned him immediate rotation minutes at most other schools.
"It's just understanding I'm playing with a lot of different great guys who can hoop," said Wilkins, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound forward, during the latest episode of The Brotherhood Podcast. He pointed to the benefits of returning to Duke and now being part of a roster that is arguably the deepest in Scheyer's five years at the helm. Wilkins recorded eight points, six rebounds, and two steals in a 102-62 scrimmage win over the visiting Belmont Bruins on Oct. 8.
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Dame Sarr and Cayden Boozer echoed Wilkins' sentiments. Sarr, who averaged 6.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.0 steals last season and earned a spot on the ACC All-Defensive Team, expanded on the idea of being surrounded by teammates with next-level aspirations.
"That's why you come here, first of all, because you could go a lot of places where you're the best, but that's not what you want," said Sarr, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound wing from Italy, to Boozer and Wilkins on the podcast. "The NBA is our goal. That's our dream. And you're not going to come [into the NBA] and be the best player. So, you might as well just go to a place like here and just get adjusted to that as fast as possible."
Sarr continued: "I feel like that's what makes you the best version of yourself, having to come in every day understanding that if you're just half-speeding things, you're going to lose games, and you're going to look bad. And you don't want that to happen. So, you know, you're going to have the urgency [at Duke] of, 'I have to come in and get better every day.' And that's how we all get better here, for sure."
Boozer, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound guard who averaged 7.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 3.0 assists for a 2025-26 Duke team that won 35 games, agreed with his fellow second-year Blue Devils.
"Coach says, 'You can't run from competition,'" Boozer told Wilkins and Sarr. "When you get to that next step, whatever that is, there's going to be even better players and more competition. So, being at a place like Duke, you might look bad or look crazy one day in practice, and having the confidence of being like, 'You know what, this happened, and I believe in myself and fighting back,' I mean, that's just the biggest part. Even if it doesn't feel great in the moment, you know that you're getting better each and every day. And you just can't run from competition, man. You just can't."
Sebastian Wilkins, Dame Sarr, Cayden Boozer, and the rest of the loaded 2026-27 Duke basketball team are now preparing to host an exhibition game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Cameron Indoor Stadium at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday (ACC Network).