Duke basketball target soaks up attention from Brotherhood

An offer from the Duke basketball coaches and subsequent chats with recent Blue Devil commits are part of one recruit’s ‘surreal’ world ever since his eye-opening performance at Peach Jam.

Four-star 2020 combo guard D.J. Steward seems to want to play where folks go crazy over hoops. Many Duke basketball fans have let him know on social media that they know just the place.

"“I’m getting a lot of messages from fans telling me to go to their school,” the 6-foot-4, 170-pound bucket supplier out of Chicago’s Whitney Young High School wrote in his debut blog for USA Today on Thursday. “I like a passionate fan base, so that’s fun to see.”"

During the two weeks since catching many coaches by surprise at Peach Jam, what Stewart has seen is what was before confined only to his dreams.

"“This is definitely what I wanted to happen,” the 17-year-old added, “but now that it’s here it just feels surreal.”"

After averaging 20.4 points and 4.4 assists across his MeanStreets’ five games against the nation’s best gathered at the EYBL’s premiere event — including a 31-point show in front of blue-blood coaches who were at the game primarily to watch a pair of higher-ranked guards — Steward now recognizes in hindsight the reason for the sudden flood of offers and new social media followers.

"“When I think back, I think it was the game I had against AOT at Peach Jam that really got me on the radar of the new schools,” explained Steward, who ranks No. 27 on the 247Sports Composite and now holds 19 offers, including from the likes of Duke and UNC with Kentucky likely to soon follow suit. “AOT has Brandon Boston and Sharife Cooper, so all of the coaches were there. It was a fun matchup, but I played well.”"

The crafty playmaker and sharpshooter — he hit 39.2 percent of his 3-point attempts and 82.9 percent of his foul shots across 16 EYBL games this season — brought up the fact several commits from various programs have been pushing him to play alongside them in college.

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But he only mentioned one pair in particular.

"“Jalen Johnson and Jeremy Roach have been in my ear a lot lately trying to get me to join The Brotherhood,” Steward wrote of the two five-stars who give the Duke basketball coaches two more top 20 pledges than any other staff at the moment."

Johnson, a small forward who ranks No. 4, and Roach, a point guard who ranks No. 18, may just need to keep up the frequent sales pitches. All six of the current 247Sports Crystal Ball picks predict Steward will eventually buy into the idea of playing for the home crowd inside Cameron Indoor Stadium starting the season after next.

Surely, the Crazies are crazy enough for his liking.

Steward, who brings to mind a former trustworthy two-guard for the Blue Devils named Daniel Ewing, plans to soon put out a list of “between 10 and 15 schools” and then start scheduling visits for the fall. He hasn’t confirmed a timeline for his final decision.

In addition to Steward, the Duke coaches are still waiting on answers from six others to whom they’ve extended 2020 offers: five-star point forward Cade Cunningham, five-star small forward Ziaire Williams, five-star shooting guard Brandon Boston, five-star center Walker Kessler, four-star center Mark Williams, and four-star power forward Henry Coleman.

ALSO READ: The four 2020 targets who look to be Durham-bound

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