The Duke Blue Devils and head coach Jon Scheyer picked up one of the biggest commitments of the offseason with the addition of incoming freshman guard Dame Sarr. A native of Italy, Sarr turned heads back in April during the Nike Hoop Summit. As he prepares for his freshman season with the Blue Devils, Sarr spoke about why he chose to play for Duke, as per Daniel Hager of On3 Sports.

“It was always a dream to play in a school like Duke,” Sarr said. “When I saw the guys from last year that went to the Draft and I saw that there was this chance for me. Talking with coach [Jon] Scheyer and coach [Emanuel Didly], I had a very clear picture of what they saw in me and the team. I liked that picture and thought it was great.”

“I was playing for Barcelona in the FIBA cup so I wanted to be in a big college,” Sarr continued. “So I think this is the biggest stage and I want to play with and against the best players and win. I think it was a very easy decision. I’m very happy I made the decision and that’s what I felt in my heart.”

In addition to Dame Sarr, Duke has a few highly touted freshman coming in for the 2025-26 season. Twins Cameron and Cayden Boozer are committed to the Blue Devils as is Nikolas Khamenia from Harvard-Westlake in California and Sebastian Wilkins from Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. When Wilkins committed, it gave Duke basketball the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation.

This past season, Sarr had been playing for FC Barcelona. He had garnered interest from other top Division 1 college basketball programs such as Kansas, Illinois and Oregon before committing to Duke. He has also participated in FIBA competition with the Italian national team.

Sarr and the incoming freshmen will look to replace a group of Blue Devils who are headed to the NBA Draft in Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, Tyrese Proctor and Sion James.