The competitiveness and instincts of the four 2025 Duke basketball signees stand out to the third-year Blue Devil head coach.
If the Duke basketball staff maintains its position at No. 1 on the 2025 recruiting trail, the haul will mark Jon Scheyer’s third top-ranked bunch across his four cycles calling all the shots. As for the one Blue Devil class in the Scheyer era that didn’t rank No. 1, the four-deep 2023 group arrived in Durham at No. 2 overall.
The Blue Devils received inked scholarship agreements from all four of their 2025 prizes thus far during this month’s early signing period. Their impressive collection consists of Harvard-Westlake School (Calif.) composite five-star forward Nikolas Khamenia, Bellaire High School (Texas) five-star forward Shelton Henderson, and the Columbus High School (Fla.) five-star twins in forward Cameron Boozer and guard Cayden Boozer, sons of Duke basketball great Carlos Boozer.
Here’s what Scheyer, who has been part of constructing a top-three class in each of his 12 recruiting cycles on the Duke basketball staff, said about the quartet of future Blue Devils:
“Well, individually, with each of these guys, we’re thrilled to get them here. But for me, it’s the makeup of the class that I’m so excited about. And there’s really two main things we look for in this class, and it’s going to continue in our program.
“But the first thing is competitiveness. And when you think about Shelton Henderson, when you think about Cayden Boozer, when you think about Nik Khamenia, when you think about Cam Boozer, the word ‘competitiveness’ comes to mind with all four of those guys. And that was really important to us in how we continue to build the program and how we continue to move this thing forward in bringing in high-level competitors.
“And the second thing for us was feel — or basketball instincts. And when you combine their competitiveness, when you combine their IQ and feel for the game, that’s been the recipe for some of our most special teams here. And it gives us an incredible core.
“And to me, there’s no better competitors and no better players we can bring in, in the country, than these four guys right here.”
