Duke Blue Devils could be picking up a BIG BIG man from the College Basketball Transfer Portal

Towering transfer reports interest from Blue Devils
from FanNation Blue Devil Country, with Matt Giles, and from YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com

The Duke basketball coaches haven’t landed a player from this year’s transfer portal. But they haven’t lost one to it either.

And with an already stacked projected roster that has put the Blue Devils atop many way-too-early preseason national rankings, it’s not as if Jon Scheyer and his gang are desperate for more talent.

On Monday night, though, former Utah Valley center Aziz Bandaogo told The Portal Report that Duke is among six schools that have shown interest in his post services since he entered the transfer portal a few days ago.

Bandaogo is a 7-foot, 225-pound big man who could help the Blue Devils replace rim-protecting extraordinaire Dereck Lively II, who declared for the 2023 NBA Draft following his one-and-done campaign in Durham.

As a junior at Utah Valley last season, Bandaogo averaged a double-double with 11.5 points and 10.4 rebounds per game while shooting 60.0 percent from the field and 63.6 percent from the charity stripe.

That’s not to mention his 2.9 blocks. Furthermore, note his mere 2.2 fouls per game, allowing the full-time starter to average almost 30 minutes for a Utah Valley squad that compiled a 28-9 overall record and finished at No. 1 in the WAC standings.

He played all 37 games. So his durability is not at all a question mark.

It was Aziz Bandaogo’s first season at Utah Valley after transferring from Akron. And therein lies one possible roadblock to the 22-year-old Senegal native and reigning WAC Defensive Player of the Year playing for the Duke basketball program or anyone else next season, as he would have to get a waiver from the NCAA or sit out a year.