Sudden twists cloud Duke basketball’s shot to snag Brandon Boston
By Matt Giles
The latest Duke basketball recruiting news regarding a top wishlist entry may spell bad news for the Blue Devils.
In April, shooting guard Cassius Stanley added the Blue Devils to his finalists less than a month before becoming the final piece to the 2019-20 Duke basketball roster. As a result, Dukies learned the easy way that a late addition is typically only promising for the added school.
Flip the calendar forward to July.
Duke fans may have no choice but to take a refresher lesson in the same subject — as it applies to another shooting guard.
This time, the hard way.
Per a Wednesday tweet from Rivals’ Corey Evans, Brandon Boston Jr. — the No. 10 overall 2020 prospect on the 247Sports Composite and a longtime priority for coach Mike Krzyzewski — added Oregon to what was his final four: Duke, Kentucky, Auburn, and Florida.
There must be a reason for the sudden addition from the 6-foot-7, 185-pound Atlantan, whose Norcross High School’s nickname is the Blue Devils and whose game combined with his frame generates a near spitting image of former one-and-done Duke guard/forward Brandon Ingram (like Ingram, Boston is a slick playmaker and smooth shooter whose strength is his length but whose glaring weakness is his physical weakness).
So is an anatidaephobia outbreak in Durham inevitable leading up to a Boston announcement that may come as soon as the end of July?
Could be. Or the Blue Devils could be left suffering a newfound fear of ‘Cats instead.
The same Evans tweet broke the news of Boston’s plan to take an official visit to Kentucky starting July 25; as those who follow recruiting have learned, a last-minute visit oftentimes translates into the host school hearing good news soon after the visit’s conclusion.
So what happened?
How did Coach K and his staff, who hosted Boston alongside his buddy and now-Duke commit Jalen Johnson for Countdown to Craziness last October, fall from the consensus favorite inside the 247Sports Crystal Ball a few months ago to seemingly a bottom-three candidate in the present?
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Not sure. And not certain this latest news necessarily guarantees doom for Duke.
With commitments from small forward Johnson and point guard Jeremy Roach — potentially perfect facilitators to complement Boston’s wealth of scoring — currently giving the Blue Devils the nation’s far and away top 2020 class, fans should be able to quickly shrug off one miss. However, with possibly as few as four or five scholarship players returning to Durham following next season, Duke can’t afford too many strikeouts.
On a positive note, though, two Crystal Ball picks pegging Boston as a Blue Devil came in last week, the day before Johnson’s pledge, meaning Kentucky now owns only a 4-3 lead over Duke among the seven picks that are in so far. That being said, both recent picks in favor of the Blue Devils came from within The Devils Den: Adam Rowe and Chad Lykins.
Plus, Duck picks could very well start flying in.
Anatidaephobia, indeed.
Duke basketball fans can still hold out hope the Blue Devils bag a Boston commitment based on the fact his name has long appeared in talks of a package deal that Johnson and Roach have now initiated. But this may be Duke’s last hope to land the five-star who has again turned heads by leading his Nike EYBL team, AOT Running Rebels (Ga.), to a 2-0 start at Peach Jam this week.
Brotherhood salesmen Johnson and Roach have work to do.
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Fortunately, Coach K and his gang appear to have, in D.J. Gordon, at least one potential backup plan in mind at shooting guard.
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