The Duke Basketball recruiting class became a little smaller this afternoon as Boogie Ellis decommitted from the program and was granted his full release.
Boogie Ellis asked for and received his release from his National Letter of Intent with Duke University on Thursday afternoon, Evan Daniels of 247 Sports first reported.
Ellis committed to Duke back on November 9 and signed his National Letter of Intent shortly after his announcement.
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The guard from San Diego, California joined Vernon Carey Jr. and Wendell Moore as the three man class for the Blue Devils until the commitments of Cassius Stanley and Matthew Hurt in mid-April.
It was no secret that head coach Mike Krzyzewski hasn’t been known to play a deep bench and with the potential arrival of Ellis along with Cassius Stanley paired with returning guards in Tre Jones, Jordan Goldwire, and Alex O’Connell, there wouldn’t be enough minutes to go around.
It has been reported that Memphis is the likely landing destination for Ellis. The Mission Bay High School star was not selected as a McDonald’s All-American but did play in the Jordan Brand Classic and the Iverson Classic.
This is the second time in three days that the Blue Devils received bad news on the recruiting front after RJ Hampton announced that he would be reclassifying from the 2020 class to the 2019 class and he would be dropping Duke from his final four list of schools.
Even with the decommitment of Boogie Ellis, Duke still holds the No. 1 recruiting class according to 247 Sports, but could be taken down by Memphis, if the Tigers land Hampton and Ellis, with already a commitment from the No. 1 player in the class, James Wiseman.
Pending the potential return of Marques Bolden and Javin DeLauier from the NBA Draft, Duke will now have one open scholarship for the 2019-20 season. If the duo does not return there will be three open scholarships, and if just one were to return there would be two scholarships.
While Duke doesn’t have to fill the potential open scholarships, maybe the Blue Devils will try to lure Hampton to Durham, although it seems unlikely after Duke stopped heavily pursing the guard once Tre Jones announced his return to the school.