Toppin, a 20-year-old, 6-foot-9 forward from Dallas, Texas, who is averaging just under 22 points per game and 10.6 rebounds on the season, scored 19 points and pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds as the Red Raiders overcame a 17-point second-half deficit to pull off the upset over the third-ranked team in the AP Top 25 men’s basketball rankings.
With his dad, former NBA player and Duke Blue Devil NCAA champion Carlos Boozer, watching courtside, Cameron, who averages over 23 points and 10 rebounds on the season, showed off his versatility, scoring 23 points, while adding eight rebounds and seven assists in defeat.
Toppin, a Junior who won Big 12 Player of the Year and was named second-team All-American last season, is having an even better season this year and is predicted to be a first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Boozer, who won’t turn 19 until next summer and who plays with his twin brother, Cayden, on the team, is a player of the year candidate and almost certainly a lottery pick in June’s NBA Draft.
“The one thing this team has done, they responded every time,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said after the game. “In practice, in games, so I know I’m going to have a team that comes back ready to work, ready to build, and a team that takes responsibility, too. And I think for us, and for me, the only good part about this is it gives you — winning can make you soft, it just does, and, so it can give you just that extra understanding of the value of every possession, when you have a lead. Things can happen where all of a sudden, you can put yourself in a position where a call can go against you, a missed free throw, a missed block out, and that can be the difference of winning and losing.”