Duke Basketball Announces Return of Five-Star Center

Duke basketball freshman big man Patrick Ngongba II is somewhat quiet off the court. So, the 6-foot-11, 250-pound Virginia native's recent silence regarding his future plans should have been no cause for concern among Blue Devil faithful.

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And on that note, it's no surprise that the Duke basketball social media team was ultimately the one to reveal the former five-star prep's thoughts on next season.

As confirmed this week via the following post with a "gonna be special" guarantee, Ngongba is officially on tap for a second year at Duke:

Year 2️⃣ @NgongbaPatrick gonna be special‼️😈🗣️ pic.twitter.com/H921hU0ilm
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) April 23, 2025

After fully recovering from injuries that forced him to miss most of his senior year at Paul VI Catholic High School (Va.), Ngongba consistently improved from one month to the next en route to becoming a formidable post force off the bench for the high-powered Blue Devils in late February and throughout March.

Across 30 outings for a 2024-25 Duke squad that tallied 35 wins and reached the Final Four, the projected 2025-26 starting center averaged 3.9 points and 2.7 rebounds in 10.5 minutes per game. He shot 71.9 percent from the field and 72.7 percent at the foul line.

Patrick Ngongba II arrived in Durham as part of a six-deep Duke basketball recruiting haul that ranked No. 1 in the country. While a few of those rookies have already declared for the 2025 NBA Draft as projected lottery picks, three are now set to become sophomores in Durham, as sharpshooting wings Isaiah Evans and Darren Harris recently confirmed they'll also run it back.

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