The Latest On Jayson Tatum’s Recruitment

The Duke Blue Devils will come into the 2015-16 season as the defending champions and also have the number one recruiting class joining this years roster. Looking ahead to the 2016 recruiting class though, Duke has yet to receive a single commitment and, although it is early, it is time to start ramping up the recruiting process for 2016.

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Mike Krzyzewski and company recently lost out on 5-star shooting guard Tyus Battle when he chose Michigan instead of Duke and since then Coach K and his staff have focused their attention on the number one player in the class, Jayson Tatum.

Tatum’s top four schools (Duke, Kentucky, UNC, and St. Louis) have been known for quite some time now, but the recent news is that Tatum has shortened the list to two schools. While we don’t know which two schools the list has been shortened to, many have speculated that Duke and St. Louis remain the frontrunners for Tatum.

Tatum is from St.Louis, Missouri which is why St. Louis makes it so high on his list. Many have asked him if he’s serious about possibly playing his college basketball there and he left no doubt.

“A lot of people (say to me) ‘SLU? Really?’ I’m dead serious about it,” Tatum said. “I know how much it would mean for my family and for the city of St. Louis if someone my caliber of talent were to stay home and play for SLU. It’d be a big deal.”

While those comments may make Blue Devil fans worry a little bit, he also had great things to say about Duke. Tatum took an official visit to Duke when they played Syracuse, and the 6’8″ forward said the visit went very well.

“I can honestly say it exceeded my expectations,” Tatum said of his visit to Duke. “I went in there wondering how crazy it was gonna be because of everything I heard about their fans and things like that and it was better than people said…I would definitely give the visit a 10 out of 10.”

It is not official yet but all signs point to Tatum having Duke in his top two schools. Right now it is just a matter of whether Tatum wants to play college basketball close to home, or if he wants to make the trip to Durham and play for the legendary Mike Krzyzewski.

Tatum has said he will commit to wherever he is most comfortable, and that he would prefer a style of play which allows him to get up and down the floor, which is the style Duke usually plays.

All we can do now is sit and wait for Tatum’s official decision, but based on everything out there it appears as though Duke has as good a shot as anyone to land the highly touted prospect. We will keep you updated of course if anything should happen, here at Ball Durham.