Duke basketball schedule: 3 takeaways as Cayden, Cameron Boozer look to replace Cooper Flagg, Tyrese Proctor

Duke's 2025-26 ACC regular schedule was unveiled on Wednesday, and the team is set to play 18 games this season.

Under this format, the Blue Devils will play two teams in a home-and-away format and will meet seven teams once at home and seven more teams away from the Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Jon Scheyer's men will play North Carolina and Louisville twice this season, while they'll host Boston College, Clemson, Georgia Tech, SMU, Syracuse, Virginia and Wake Forest.

Duke, meanwhile, will travel to California, Florida State, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Stanford and Virginia Tech. It won't play Miami this season.

Last season, Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach and Tyrese Proctor led the Blue Devils to ACC regular season and tournament titles and reached the Final Four of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

This year, blue-chip recruits Cameron Boozer, Cayden Boozer, Nikolas Khamenia, Dame Sarr and Sebastian Wilkins join returnees Caleb Foster, Patrick Ngongba II, Isaiah Evans and Darren Harris in Duke's quest to win its sixth national title and first since 2015.

The Boozer twins, Khamenia, Wilkins and Sarr aim to surpass the achievements set by last year's team, led by Cooper Flagg and Tyrese Proctor. It meant that not making the national championship final would be a disappointment for the 2025-26 Duke team.

Here are three key takeaways from Duke's conference schedule in the 2025-26 season:

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3 key takeaways from Duke's 2025-26 ACC conference schedule in the 2025-26 season

#1 Duke will play North Carolina twice this season

Duke will play perennial rivals North Carolina at least twice this season. They'll have home and away matchups this year.

Both teams played thrice last season, and the Blue Devils swept the two regular-season games, winning by 17 and 13 points. The Tar Heels made a game out of it in the ACC Tournament semifinals, but Duke pulled off a 74-71 squeaker and eventually took home the ACC regular-season-tournament double.

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#2 No Miami game this season for Duke

Duke's 18-game ACC schedule meant that it wouldn't face Miami this season. The development benefits the Hurricanes more than the Blue Devils, as the Coral Gables-based team was swept last season.

In their first encounter on Jan. 14 at the Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke demolished Miami 89-54. The return bout at the Watsco Center was even worse, as the Blue Devils ran away with a 97-60 drubbing of the Hurricanes.

Miami is undergoing a rebuild with former Duke assistant Jai Lucas leading the team as its new coach. Interestingly, Lucas also brought four-star recruit and former Blue Devils commit Shelton Henderson with him to Coral Gables.

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#3 Away game against Will Wade's NC State will be interesting

NC State has received much buzz during the offseason due to the hiring of former McNeese State and LSU coach Will Wade.

Wade retooled the Wolfpack into a solid unit as they seek to claw back to the NCAA Tournament after the 2024-25 team missed it last season.

The Wolfpack acquired Darrion Williams, Alyn Breed, Quadir Copeland, Jerry Deng, Terrance Arcenaux, Colt Langdon and Tre Holloman from the transfer portal and signed up five-star recruit Matt Able and Finnish young star Jayme Kontuniemi.

NC State lost to Duke in their only game last season, 74-64.