Surprise Blue Devil Seeing Draft Stock Skyrocket as College Basketball Season Gets Underway

The 2024-25 college basketball season is officially underway and fans are excited to see what the Duke Blue Devils do this year. There’s a ton of excitement surrounding the Blue Devil men’s program as they have one of the best recruiting/freshman classes headlined by Cooper Flagg.

Flagg enters this season as one of the most hyped players and freshmen in college as many draft analysts believe he could be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. While all the attention will be on Flagg, another freshman is catching the eyes of NBA scouts.

Kon Knueppel committed to Duke last fall and was ranked as the 18th-best recruit in the 2024 class, according to 247 Sports. The freshman guard from Milwaukee, Wisconsin had a stellar senior year at Wisconsin Lutheran High School, where he was also named Gatorade Wisconsin Player of the Year.

Knueppel averaged 25.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game. He also shot 59.4 percent from the field and 39.5 percent from beyond the arc. 

Sam Vecenie of The Athletic spoke with NBA scouts and this is what they had to say about Knueppel.

""While Cooper Flagg certainly has all of the public’s attention at Duke, several scouts have been extremely excited about freshman wing Kon Knueppel. Most scouts I talk to currently project Knueppel with a lottery grade and a serious shot to rise beyond that. His offensive ability has stood out immediately to scouts who have been through to see Duke.""

The Blue Devils will be looking for another scorer at the guard spot after they lost Jared McCain to the NBA and Jeremy Roach to the transfer portal. Roach averaged 14 points per game, while McCain scored 14.3 points a game and shot 41.3% from three-point range.

If Knueppel can make a similar impact as McCain did last year for the Blue Devils, he’ll make himself a household name. Knueppel will look to get off to a good start on Monday night against the Maine Black Bears.

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