The offseason’s most significant move for Duke came through the transfer portal, where they secured Wisconsin standout guard John Blackwell. As one of the most coveted names available, Blackwell’s decision to commit to Jon Scheyer and the Blue Devils brought a high-caliber scoring threat to Durham.
Blackwell fills a void Duke has lacked in recent years a guard capable of creating offense with the ball in his hands. Upon arriving in Tobacco Road, the expectations are already sky-high, with many pegging him as the centerpiece of a squad built for a national title run.
That projection naturally places him squarely in the National Player of the Year discussion, and the conversation gained momentum this week when DraftKings unveiled its early Wooden Award odds. Blackwell enters at +1200, holding the third-best line behind Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr. (+850) and Florida’s Thomas Haugh (+1000).
Should Blackwell capture the Wooden Award, it would carve out a new chapter in college basketball history for Duke. The Blue Devils are coming off consecutive wins with Cooper Flagg in 2025 and Cameron Boozer in 2026, and no program has ever strung together three straight Wooden trophies. A Blackwell victory would therefore mark an unprecedented achievement for the program.
Duke already belongs to an exclusive group: only four schools have managed back-to-back Wooden winners, and just two have done so with different players in successive seasons. Purdue’s Zach Edey (2023, 2024) and Virginia’s Ralph Sampson (1982, 1983) achieved their repeats with the same player, while St. John’s pulled it off with Chris Mullin (1985) and Walter Berry (1986). Duke’s current run is actually its second such streak, following Shane Battier (2001) and Jay Williams (2002) a stretch that came closest to three straight, as the Blue Devils also won three out of four years with Elton Brand’s 1999 victory preceding Battier and Williams.
The Wooden Award has been presented since 1977, and the upcoming season will mark its 50th iteration. Duke has claimed eight of the previous 49 honors, and a Blackwell win would give the Blue Devils nine total and an unprecedented third consecutive trophy.
Even though Blackwell is expected to lead Duke in scoring, the roster is deep and balanced, which could make it tougher for him to amass the gaudy statistics typically associated with such individual accolades. Yet for all the personal recognition a Wooden Award would bring, the Wisconsin transfer arrived in Durham with a singular focus bringing a national championship back to Duke, because that is the only prize that truly counts.
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