Cameron Boozer is averaging 22.6 points and 10 rebounds per game, shoots 58.2% from the field, and is the runaway favorite to win the Naismith Player of the Year award. He is 6-foot-9, plays with the poise of a senior and the athleticism of a lottery pick, and nobody in college basketball has figured out how to stop him.
Tonight, Notre Dame gets its turn. The No. 1 Duke Blue Devils visit Purcell Pavilion at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, and the most important question in this game is not about the Irish. It is about whether any defense can make Boozer uncomfortable for 40 minutes. Nobody has managed it yet.
Why Cameron Boozer Is the Best Player in College Basketball Right Now
The numbers are historic by conference standards. Boozer leads the ACC in both scoring and rebounding, the first player to do that since Marvin Bagley III in 2017-18. He averages 4.0 assists per game on top of those numbers, meaning every time a defense collapses on him, someone else gets an open look. He does not have a weakness that opposing coaches have been able to scheme around.
His performance in Duke’s biggest game of the season made the point clearly. When No. 1 Michigan met the Blue Devils at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. last Saturday, Boozer led Duke in points (18), rebounds (10), assists (seven), and blocks (two). Duke won and moved to No. 1. The week before, against Syracuse, he shot 8-for-10 from the field and finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds before the night was over.
The basketball DNA has a lot to do with it. His father, Carlos Boozer, played 13 seasons in the NBA, won a national championship at Duke in 2001, earned a gold medal with the 2008 Redeem Team at the Beijing Olympics, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2025 as a member of that Olympic squad. His brother Cayden plays alongside him at Duke. Basketball has never been a hobby in that family. It has always been the work.
Boozer entered college as the No. 3 recruit in the 2025 class and is now a projected top-three pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. The projection looks conservative from here.
What Notre Dame Would Need to Pull the Upset at Purcell Pavilion
The honest answer is a lot. Notre Dame is 12-15 on the season, 3-11 in ACC play. The Irish have not been a team that has given top opponents difficult nights this season, and there is no obvious matchup on their roster that creates problems for a player Boozer’s size and skill level.
But Purcell Pavilion gets loud and the crowd will be invested in this one. Road games against inferior opponents are exactly the spots where the best teams look past what is in front of them. Duke has won four straight and are now 25-2, and will arrive in South Bend having spent a week reading about how good they are.
That is the version of this game Notre Dame needs. They need Boozer to be a little bored, Duke to be a little comfortable, and the Irish crowd to make it feel like a game before the Blue Devils remember who they are.
It is a narrow window. But it is the only window Notre Dame has since Boozer has looked virtually unstoppable this season.
