As we said in Part II of our Duke preview, Jon Scheyer has recruited brilliantly since taking over in 2022, but the one thing he hasn’t really had has been a great point guard. That’s somewhat ironic since he became a great one himself at Duke, leading the Blue Devils to the 2010 national championship.
Duke has two primary candidates for the job this year, and how that sorts out may define this team’s destiny.
Those guards are junior Caleb Foster and freshman Cayden Boozer.
Foster had some great moments
as a freshman before an ankle injury forced him to miss the last nine games and last season, he seemingly had some confidence issues that limited his minutes during the middle of the season.
Now he’s a junior, he’s worked hard in the weight room and his foot injury is definitely in the rear view. Assuming he’s over his crisis of confidence, Foster should be a major contributor whether as a starter or off the bench.
He’s up to 205, from 197 as a freshman, and his hard work has made an impression on his coaches. Here’s what assistant Chris Carrawell says about him:
“He was in the gym, in the weight room, always on the court. And so when you take a look at him, his body looks phenomenal, like a gladiator. Muscles popping out of his neck and everything. You can just tell he’s talking more. So from a leadership standpoint, we’ve really been pleased with his development.”
In our limited views of him so far, Foster looks great.
As for Boozer, he always gets less attention than his brother Cameron, but it would be a major mistake to overlook him because if you haven’t noticed, his teams tend to win. Columbus won four straight Florida high school championships. He helped his team win the 2025 Chipotle Nationals crown and three straight Peach Jam titles. He also won gold medals with Team USA the 2023 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship and the 2024 FIBA Under-17 World Cup.
That’s a pretty great resume for anyone and how cool is it to accomplish all of that with your twin brother?
What we’ve seen of Boozer is a guy who might not be the most athletic guard in college. You might read that and think that’s damning with faint praise, but it’s not. You certainly have to have talent to play at a high level, but for a point guard, having to outsmart more talented opponents is a weird sort of advantage. Just look at some of the great point of the recent past. Remember Khalid El-Amin? Mateen Cleaves? Tyus Jones? Jon Scheyer?
Notice a common theme? That’s right – they all won national championships and none were major stars in the NBA (Scheyer’s career ended before it started after an eye injury however and Jones has become a widely respected pro who annually has the best A/T ratio).
Having a smart point guard is a huge advantage. One of our favorites in the recent past was Michigan State’s Cassius Winston, who just knew how to play. When Duke played the Spartans, as good a point guard as Tre Jones was, Winston ate him alive – and Jones was one of the best defenders we’ve ever seen at Duke.
We fully expect Isaiah Evans to start and the question of who starts alongside him…you can make arguments either way.
Foster has more experience. He’s also had some hard knocks and has answered those with hard work. His coaches want him to succeed, perhaps more than most, because of that hard work. He’s never given up and you love that. That said, is he a natural point guard?
Well, maybe, maybe not. Remember though that Scheyer didn’t start off at point. Foster has learned and adapted and – this is important for Scheyer – he’s almost certainly well ahead of Boozer as a defender.
For his part though, Boozer just seems to have that aura of winning. Part of it is always having his brother on his team because Cameron is well ahead of most young big guys. He’s well rounded and exceptionally mature. But there’s no getting around Boozer winning. His teams win, and they win a lot. It’s become a habit for him, an expectation. Bobby Hurley came to Duke with that. So did Tyus Jones. You can’t quantify it exactly, but people who win tend to…win.
There are concerns about Boozer’s shot, but with Evans, Darren Harris and his brother on the team, he won’t need to shoot a lot, at least not this season. That’s really more of an NBA concern.
The other thing to keep in mind is this: Duke has a deep backcourt. With Foster, Boozer, Dame Sarr and possibly Darren Harris or Nik Khamenia, the staff won’t have to worry about rationing minutes or resting people. You can easily imagine a situation where Evans is at forward and Foster and Boozer both start, much like Jason Williams and Chris Duhon both started in 2001.
One of them will emerge as the primary point guard, but both should play, and play a lot. And that will help Duke to ratchet up pressure on both ends, but especially defense.
One last thought about the point guard battle: we love that Scheyer hired Tyler Thornton. You may remember that he was signed – we believe he even said this at the time – as insurance for Kyrie Irving. He became much more than that.
As discussed above, Thornton was never talented enough to beat people with raw ability. He had to think the game. He did that and became a very solid guard for Duke and occasionally a great one. Most of all, he was a winner.
He’s in a perfect position to work with Duke’s rising point guards and both Foster and Boozer should benefit from his knowledge and experience. Scheyer has been immensely successful despite having good but not great points. We may find out this year what he can do with a very good one.
As soon as we know which one it is, that is.
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