Consecutive years of rare greatness for Duke fans

Don’t get used to it. Or, to put it more positively, enjoy it while you can.

The statistical dimensions of what Cameron Boozer has accomplished so far this season are rarely matched, and certainly not on any team with a variety of talented players. Even if that happened to a Duke team that also produced five NBA players last season.

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For a player to lead his team in scoring, rebounding and assists is rare. These last two seasons are the only times in which the Blue Devil himself led the team in all three statistical categories. Let’s go back to the 1969 season, when assists were officially reported, and no other Blue Devils besides the most recent pair were leading in scoring, rebounds and assists.

And by the way, Cameron Boozer also leads Duke in steals, just like last year’s leader.

That player, 2025 National Player of the Year Cooper Flagg, is so skilled at distributing the ball and creating with it that his Dallas coach, Jason Kidd, a renowned ball-handler during his playing days, began the NBA season by entrusting his rookie ace with the task of starting the Mavericks’ offense. This year Cameron Boozer is making a similar statistical splash, serving as the center around which the Devils revolve.

Of course, other players can lead their team in multiple statistical categories, especially scoring and rebounding. Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud last year and UNC freshman Caleb Wilson so far this year have led their respective teams in those categories. But neither man stands out for the combination of skill and court awareness to also lead in assists, like Cameron Boozer does.

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The chart below illustrates another interesting twist: Duke’s recent scoring leaders have been exceptionally well-rounded players, particularly frontcourt stalwarts like Pablo Banchero, Wendell Carter Jr. and RJ Barrett.

Cameron Boozer’s quadruple leadership could change a bit as the season progresses, less because of what he doesn’t do than because of what his younger twin brother, Cayden Boozer, and others have increasingly shown they can do.

(Scientific interlude: Just to clarify how siblings of such different height and build can be twins, there are two types of twins: identical and fraternal. In simpler terms, identical twins come from the division of one egg, while fraternal twins develop from two separate eggs fertilized simultaneously by two different sperm. The genetic profiles of monozygotic twins are identical; the dizygotic pair have about a 50 percent genetic match. Both types of twins interact in utero, studies show, which may be why such couples seem to share tacit understandings).

Cayden Boozer has been showing up lately. He has started all three of Duke’s ACC games, wins against Georgia Tech and Florida State in which he played more than half of each contest, and a less visible effort against Louisville. He ranks second on the team in assists with a ratio of 2.6 for each turnover.

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Cayden has been the best in assists at Army (8) and against Howard (6) and Lipscomb (4). The Boozers tied for the team lead in assists against Western Carolina (5 each) and combined for 15 of Duke’s 23 assists (compared to 6 turnovers) at FSU. The pair had six of Duke’s nine assists at Louisville (with five turnovers).

Cayden remains an uncertain 3-point shooter, but he makes nearly three-quarters of his free throws, a key strength if a playmaker wants to stay on the court in crunch time.

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