Duke Basketball: Cole Anthony’s latest tweet keeps fans on edge of seat

Duke basketball target Cole Anthony once again proves to be a mastermind when it comes to keeping his followers’ eyes glued to his Twitter account.

Five-star 2019 combo guard Cole Anthony certainly knows how to pander to Duke basketball fans’ obsession for updates from any potential Blue Devil.

In fact, if the basketball career of the 6-foot-3, 185-pound son of former UNLV great Greg Anthony doesn’t pan out — highly unlikely — he should consider becoming a social media marketing specialist. He seems to already have a firm grasp on the art of the tease.

On Friday night,  Anthony tweeted the following:

https://twitter.com/The_ColeAnthony/status/1050892988271009792

The last time he cut his list, 12 schools remained: Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, Villanova, Oregon, Louisville, Wake Forest, Pitt, Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Miami. He tweeted that list on Aug. 27, three days after he used a tweet nearly identical to the one from Friday to tease that announcement.

So based on his past behavior, fans should expect the tweet containing the actual new list — no clue how many schools will remain this time — on Monday. However, based on the observation that Anthony seems to enjoy the extra attention that he gets from these teasing tweets, there is no way at all to intelligently predict when the actual list will suddenly appear.

After all, he’s just a high school senior. And his senior prank could be to put out this latest tweet and then not reveal the new list until the spring — or never at all.

That being said, when the new list does appear, there is a justified fear among Duke fans that the Blue Devils won’t be on it. And the reason their fear is justified is Anthony has yet to schedule an official visit to Duke. He has, however, already taken official visits to UNC and Notre Dame in September, and he has scheduled a visit to Oregon for the weekend of Oct. 19.

Anthony ranks No. 3 overall in his class and No. 1 at his position on the 247Sports Composite. His athleticism, shooting, ball handling, and court awareness all back up his lofty ranking.

As of right now, 67 percent of the experts at 247Sports’ Crystal Ball are predicting that Anthony, who plays for Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, will become a Tar Heel. And while the other 33 percent are pegging him as a Blue Devil, that mark has declined in the past month, giving UNC the apparent lead in a race that once seemed to favor Duke.

Anthony has reiterated several times that he has no intention of announcing his final decision until late spring.

Duke associate head coach Jon Scheyer has been leading the Blue Devils’ recruitment of Anthony. Currently, though, Scheyer has faced four rejections from Duke’s 2019 targets while failing to pick up a single commitment.

The Blue Devils’ lone commitment from a 2019 recruit thus far came on Monday night from five-star forward Wendell Moore, whose recruitment was led by Duke assistant Chris Carrawell.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more Duke basketball recruiting updates, analysis, opinions, and predictions.