CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Duke’s Caleb Foster said the Blue Devils without Cooper Flagg, without a lineup stocked with NBA draft picks, will forge a new identity this season.

Which is?

“Defense,” Foster said Wednesday at ACC Tipoff. “This team has good length and versatility, and I think could be a very good defensive team.”

And the best defender on the team?

“The Freak,” Foster said.

That would be Maliq Brown, the 6-foot-9 forward that Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer calls a “defensive menace” and is hoping will be ready – or close to it – when the 2025-26 season begins Nov. 4 against Texas in Charlotte.

Brown dislocated a shoulder last season and reinjured it during the 2024 ACC tournament. In the NCAA tournament, he played only limited minutes in games against Arizona and Alabama, then against Houston in the Final Four.

Brown’s offseason rehab has taken care of his shoulder issues, he said Wednesday, but the senior has missed practice time with knee soreness. While able to run through some of the individual drills, Brown has been held out of scrimmage sessions in what has been a week-to-week progression.

“With Maliq, he’s close to coming back,” Scheyer said Wednesday. “We still have not seen our full group together. So I think for me as a coach, that’s the biggest challenge, that we’re missing a key guy and we haven’t been able to see what that looks like. But, also, for the other players to understand what it’s like to have Maliq out there on the floor.”

Why Brown is Duke’s shutdown guy

With Brown on the floor, the Blue Devils will have a shutdown guy, someone to frustrate opposing players. He can force bad shots, get deflections, get steals … all the things that coaches admire.

“All the dirty things,” Brown said.

When Brown was at Syracuse, he led the ACC with 71 steals in 2023-24. He was named to the ACC’s All-Defensive team that season. He was that disruptive.

“Have you seen how long his arms are?” Foster said, smiling.

Foster acted as if he had a ball cocked with both hands behind his head.

“I can have the ball back here and he can still get a hand on it,” Foster said, smiling. “He gets his hands on everything.”

Battling injuries

Brown said he first hurt his shoulder last season in the Feb. 17 game at Virginia. The Culpeper, Va, native had a lot of family make the 45-mile trip to Charlottesville, only to be injured.

“I believe I was going for a steal,” Brown said. “A freak accident.”

Brown missed four games, then returned for the win at North Carolina wearing a shoulder brace. When the ACC tournament began in Charlotte, he said he felt “pretty good.”

“Obviously there was a chance it might pop out again at that time without surgery,” he said. “But it was something I wanted to take a chance on and not leave my brothers out there. Especially with the season we were having, I didn’t want to leave it there and wanted to finish it out.”

Accepting the risk, Brown played on. And was injured again in Duke’s quarterfinal game against Georgia Tech.

Flagg also went out with a sprained ankle in that game, and the two could only watch from the bench as the Blue Devils went on to win the tournament championship.

Losing to Houston in the national semifinals – Brown did play 15 minutes – was a downer for everyone in Duke blue. The Blue Devils were ever so close to playing for their first national championship since 2015.

“We still have a chip on our shoulder because of the way last season ended,” Brown said,

One of Duke’s leaders

The exodus to the NBA soon began – Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, Sion James, Tyrese Proctor. Scheyer quickly went about restructuring the roster, which had five returning players joined by five newcomers including the freshman twins, Cameron and Cayden Boozer.

Brown and Foster, a junior in his third year in the program, have become team leaders. There have been team meals at The Commons in Durham – “We’ve probably been 10 times, often staying two hours,” Brown said – and a bowling outing. The freshmen, Brown said, seemingly have made a smooth transition to college life and new setting at Duke.

“We wanted to make sure they were all comfortable and this is a home away from home,” Brown said.

Scheyer, beginning his fourth year as head coach, likes the look and feel of his team, even though he said it might be the least experienced team in the ACC.

“I’ve seen great hunger, which is what gives me great confidence for this team,” he said Wednesday. “So do I wish we had a little bit more experience? Yeah, of course. But at the end of the day, you want the best combination of skill sets complementing one another.Then, also, you need really good talent that fits how we’re going to play, which I believe we have.”

Brown will be a part of it. He’ll heal up. He’ll play a vital role for the Devils. After his injury problems, he also said he has a new appreciation for being able to play.

“I just want to get my body right and have a good senior year,” Brown said. “It’s about living in the moment and not taking anything for granted.”

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