Duke basketball: Five-star 2021 target could co-headline 2020 class

One potential Duke basketball player is weighing the option to arrive one season early and fill a potential void in Durham.

After earning a Duke basketball offer in early July — following averages of 25.2 points and 11.2 boards at Peach Jam — O’Dea High School (Seattle) power forward Paolo Banchero shut the door on reclassing to 2020.

A few weeks later, with top suitors expressing certainty about his readiness for the next level, the 2021 five-star opened the door back up again.

The staff from Durham, per Stockrisers’ Jake Weingarten, sees the 247Sports 2021 Composite’s No. 4 prospect complementing the No. 4 prospect from the 2020 class: five-star small forward Jalen Johnson, a likely one-and-done who verbally committed to Duke on July 4 (joining five-star point guard Jeremy Roach).

Obviously, with possibly zero returning Blue Devils taller than 6-foot-7 on tap for the season after next, a reclass and commitment from the multifaceted 6-foot-9, 235-pounder would alleviate some anxiety.

Banchero’s dad, though, is still just trying to wrap his head around all the recent attention from the likes of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Kentucky coach John Calipari.

"“Up until last year, you would’ve thought, ‘Man, if Coach K ever calls, or if Coach Cal ever calls, it would be done. It would be over,'” Mario Banchero told CBSSports’ Gary Parrish last week. “But now [those things have happened, and] it’s just the next stage [in the recruitment].”"

Up next for Mario Banchero’s 16-year-old son is scheduling official visits for the fall and then thinking about announcing finalists; not surprisingly, Paolo Banchero told Parrish the two schools he for sure wants to visit are Duke and Kentucky.

Now, the Blue Devils are still fervently pursuing 2020 four-star Henry Coleman, a traditional power forward who sports a No. 39 composite ranking and has most prognosticators believing he’ll soon become a Duke pledge.

But Coleman specializes in defense and rebounding. Banchero — imagine a quicker, hustling version of former Duke star Jabari Parker — specializes in being seemingly unstoppable on offense and a showstopper on the other end.

Ideally, Coleman and Banchero wouldn’t mind coexisting in Durham.

Granted, the 247Sports Crystal Ball for Banchero shows Washington as the overwhelming favorite, which makes sense considering his dad played football for the Huskies while his mom, Rhonda Smith, became the all-time leading scorer for the women’s basketball program.

That being said, Banchero has expressed on many occasions that close proximity and family ties only matter so much.

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"“My mom and dad don’t push me to Washington,” he informed Parrish, “and they also don’t push me anywhere else. They said that wouldn’t be fair.”"

In closing, if Banchero was to ink his name on the 2020-21 Duke basketball roster, he’d likely join Johnson — whose specialties include court awareness and unselfish facilitating — as the top Blue Devils on campus.

Of course, as evidenced in recent years, Coach K and his cohorts don’t mind hauling in three five-star forwards from the same class. And as of late, they are making a strong push for 2020 small forward Ziaire Williams, who picked up his Duke offer in late July and boasts a No. 7 composite ranking due to impressive athleticism, length, and silky moves.

Other recruits from Banchero’s current class holding Duke offers are five-star small forward Patrick Baldwin Jr., five-star small forward Jonathan Kuminga, five-star small forward A.J. Griffin, and five-star shooting guard Max Christie.

As for 2020, in addition to Coleman and Williams, three others possess outstanding offers from the Blue Devils: five-star center Walker Kessler, four-star center Mark Williams, and four-star combo guard D.J. Steward.

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