Duke basketball: Five-star makes Coach K look even smarter

A Duke basketball offer to a budding prospect back in July led to a commitment in September and is now proving to be one of the most clever moves in the 2020 cycle.

Obviously, without savvy scouting and shrewd offers, one can’t win five national championships and own roughly a quarter of the nation’s past 40 No. 1 classes. But lessons from rare misjudgments and recruiting losses must be responsible for Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s ever-sharpening instincts when it comes to landing truly elite talent.

Case in point: DJ Steward, a senior combo guard for Whitney Young (Ill.), the same high school that produced Duke basketball national champion center Jahlil Okafor. The 6-foot-4, 170-pound five-star was once a four-star — ranking as low as No. 127 on the 247Sports 2020 Composite last year — and appeared to be nothing more than a potential backup plan for the Blue Devils.

And in essence, Steward probably remained a backup plan up until about three weeks into summer. Around that time, from most accounts, Duke and current Kentucky commit B.J. Boston lost interest in one other.

Then, with Krzyzewski and his crew in attendance at July’s Peach Jam, Steward dropped 31 points against Boston, a fellow five-star combo guard. While the performance drew oohs and aahs from multiple blue-blood staffs — as did his averages of 22.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.5 steals across 16 Nike EYBL games this year — it was Coach K who strategically capitalized on the moment by swiftly swooping in to make the Chicago native a top priority.

Steward, arguably 2020’s best outside shooter, now boasts a No. 26 composite ranking. Plus, after reportedly standing out among 84 elite prep prospects at the USA Basketball Junior Minicamp over the weekend — in front of scouts from 24 NBA teams — he is likely to leapfrog several more of his peers when the next batch of updated rankings come out.

In fact, ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony’s first crack at a mock 2021 draft suggests the 18-year-old is on the verge of becoming a projected lottery pick (currently No. 16). Another ESPN draft analyst who was at the minicamp, Mike Schmitz, described Steward as “steady all weekend long…showing off his shifty nature, slick handle, sharp feel for the game, and shooting touch.”

ESPN college basketball insider Jeff Borzello named Steward one of the three top performers on Saturday night, which he summed up as an “awesome night at USAB minicamp” due to the “high-energy, really high-level basketball.”

On Sunday, Rivals analyst Clint Jackson tweeted the following: “Final Thoughts from USA — DJ Steward is a slippery quick combo guard who can really shoot it. Plays defense, very unselfish, versatile, and quick.”

This all sounds as if Coach K and Co. snatched a guy who, until recently, was evidently a hidden gem destined to eventually step into the spotlight. As a consequence, though, Steward is also starting to sound more and more like yet another one-and-done Duke basketball player.

By the time Steward debuts in Durham next fall, if his stellar play and great strides of late extend through his upcoming senior season, he could feasibly be a consensus top-10 recruit alongside fellow Duke commit Jalen Johnson (a five-star small forward who ranks No. 6 on the composite and is No. 7 on Givony’s mock draft).

The Blue Devils have also received a verbal pledge from one other five-star in point guard Jeremy Roach, who was at the minicamp but — coming off an ACL tear last November and holding off his full return until the start of his senior season — did not participate in scrimmages. Additionally, Krzyzewski’s 2020 class, which ranks No. 1 in the country at the moment, includes two four-star power forwards in Henry Coleman and Jaemyn Brakefield.

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Should Duke also land four-star centers Mark Williams and Hunter Dickinson — both are likely to announce decisions in time to sign in mid-November — Coach K will have pulled off an amazing seven-man haul before winter arrives. So it looks as if the all-time winningest college basketball coach’s wisdom this cycle is at least paying off in the form of earned breaks from recruiting.

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