Three Things Worth Noting About The 2023-24 Duke Basketball Roster

The official Duke Basketball roster has been updated and the first thing that we notice is that no one opted to take a number between 6 and 9 which is now allowed by the NCAA.

The second thing we noticed, obviously, are the freshmen numbers: Jared McCain is #0, Caleb Foster is #1, TJ Power is #12 and Sean Stewart is #13. Stanford transfer Neil Begovich will wear #20.

And all that is cool, stuff we all want to know of course. But there’s something else.

Last year, when Christian Reeves came to Duke, he was listed at 6-11 and 210.

Now?

Reese is listed at 7-1 and 261.

And for that matter, Kyle Filipowski was listed at 6-11 and 230 as a freshman.

Now?

Try 7-0 and 248.

There was a lot of concern about center play after Dereck Lively announced for the NBA Draft and that was understandable, even if people forgot that many of them were complaining that Lively wasn’t living up to expectations early.

Whatever.

These guys have both grown taller and put on a lot of muscle. Remember how Filipowski got knocked down a lot last year? That won’t be happening as much.

And while Reeves seemed tentative at times last year, the added power should give him a lot more confidence.

By the way, Sean Stewart is listed at 6-9 and 227. Let’s see how he does. The progress of Filipowski and Reeves should also become a big selling point to recruits because clearly, when it comes to conditioning and weight training, Duke is doing something right.