Duke basketball staff should survive cut from top UNC target

By the end of the weekend, the Duke basketball staff looks to be one step closer to crushing its rival’s best hope at landing one of 2020’s top 10 prospects.

The 2020 Duke basketball class already includes two five-stars — small forward Jalen Johnson and point guard Jeremy Roach — both ranked higher than North Carolina’s lone commit, five-star center Day’Ron Sharpe.

A third may be in the works.

Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, Calif.) small forward Ziaire Williams — who, at No. 7 on the 247Sports Composite, sits three spots behind Johnson, 11 ahead of Roach, and 15 ahead of Sharpe — will announce his seven finalists Sunday, per Tipton Edits.

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Up until Duke entered the race with an offer a few weeks ago, UNC and Stanford were the dual favorites to land the 6-foot-8, 190-pound five-star — an athletic, lengthy, sharpshooting specimen in the mold of former Duke basketball stars Rodney Hood and Brandon Ingram.

Nowadays, though, prognosticators are beginning to see a future with Williams in Durham. His Crystal Ball still shows the Tar Heels and Cardinal tied for the lead with three of the seven picks apiece, but the other pick now goes to the Blue Devils.

And the insider who envisions Williams at Duke, Andrew Slater, happens to be the best in the business at predicting future members of #TheBrotherhood this early in the game.

Williams plans to start scheduling fall visits soon after he drops his list. Having already taken official visits to Stanford and UNC last spring — he was in attendance for the Tar Heels’ home win over the Zion-less Blue Devils — expect Williams’ choices for visits this fall to further signal where he is leaning.

In addition to Duke, UNC, and Stanford, the others on the list of his final seven will likely include several West Coast schools like Arizona, UCLA, and Oregon.

The other 2020 prospects holding Duke basketball offers — those who haven’t yet cut the Blue Devils from their lists — are five-star center Walker Kessler, four-star center Mark Williams, four-star combo guard D.J. Steward, and four-star power forward Henry Coleman.

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