John Blackwell left the Wisconsin Badgers this offseason to get a bunch of money, run for a national championship, and presumably prepare himself for the NBA Draft. There was a lot of excitement from Duke fans after the Blue Devils grabbed arguably the top player in the transfer portal. Duke fans are a little less thrilled after seeing his season debut and are truly hoping this is an anomaly instead of the norm for him.
The Duke Blue Devils are an absolute wagon playing Army, who is a KenPom 338 team, so Blackwell's performance didn't matter in the slightest for the overall win. Yet, Duke fans and Wisconsin fans are still noticing that the former Badger had a terrible debut. Blackwell probably agrees, as he was in the gym after the game, putting up shots by himself.
John Blackwell looks so bad wow
— Commander Fan Will (@sadsportfanwill) November 3, 2026
John Blackwell's stat line is tough to read in his first official Duke game of the season
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Blackwell played for 23 minutes, scored three points on 1/6 from the field and 1/5 from three. He added one rebound, one assist, and four turnovers. Woof. That's not good. Not good at all.
Greg Gard did test Blackwell at the point before, when he was at Wisconsin, and there were similar results; he just simply didn't thrive running the show. That could be a big part of this, as Duke is making him the floor general. While on paper it works because he's the perfect NBA point guard size, he can create off or on the ball, and has the ability to take over games. For whatever reason, it doesn't really work. This is another example.
It also could simply be an off night, and that's what Blackwell experienced. Wisconsin fans saw plenty of those; it's almost like there were times when the motor wasn't there. Against Kansas in the exhibition, he was great for Duke. In 27 minutes, he scored 23 points, hauled in four rebounds, had two steals, and two assists. He also had four turnovers.
Duke fans are sure hoping that the Army game was a fluke and that he will get back to the guy that Duke recruited into the fold. Wisconsin fans will stay interested because Blackwell has never had a team full of players who all want to be the star around him. There may even be some who are rooting for or thinking that he could have an AJ Storr arc.
Storr left Wisconsin and was immediately not as good as he was before. Could Blackwell have a similar story? It will be interesting to watch this season as it goes. Wisconsin fans are mixed on whether to root for the guy or not. On one hand, he was with Wisconsin for years and provided some amazing moments, but on the other hand, he left for Duke of all schools.
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