As more time goes on, it looks more and more likely that Cedric Coward will remain in the 2025 NBA Draft as opposed to playing college basketball next season. The Washington State transfer guard ultimately committed to Duke over Alabama, but his main focus remained on the draft. Now, through impressive performances in the NBA Combine drills and a rise in stock, it looks like Coward will not be in Durham next season.
However, Jon Scheyer and Co. might be on the verge of finding Coward’s replacement in international recruit Dame Sarr. Sarr is from Italy and has played for FC Barcelona for the last few years.
The race for Sarr heated up in the last day, as 247Sports insider Travis Branham pulled a crystal ball prediction that he had made for Sarr to land at Kansas. Right after this, it was reported that Duke was heavily pursuing the guard, likely under the assumption that Coward would not be playing for the Blue Devils next season.
And just a day after it was reported that Scheyer was heavily pursuing Sarr, Chad Lykins and John Watson, two 247Sports insiders, have placed crystal ball predictions for Duke to land the Italian shooting guard.
Back in early April, Duke was one of the teams in the mix for Sarr, along with Kansas, Oregon, and Illinois. However, the buzz between Sarr and the Blue Devils quickly fizzled out after the program landed Coward.
Scheyer immediately jumped back into the mix as the likelihood of Coward staying in the NBA Draft increased, and now it looks like Sarr is leaning towards Durham.
The addition of Sarr would be an absolutely critical pickup for the Blue Devils after losing Coward to fill the void at the two or the three spot. However, there is one thing the Blue Devils will lack next season if the team replaces Coward with Sarr: experience.
If Scheyer ends up with Sarr and he starts in what would’ve been Coward’s spot, that means the Blue Devils will almost definitely be throwing out four underclassmen in the starting five next season. Caleb Foster and Maliq Brown will be the only two upperclassmen playing significant minutes for Duke in 2025-26, making the squad extremely young. The team will be filled with an immense amount of talent, but proven production for a high-major team is not something a lot of next season’s Blue Devils have mastered yet.
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