Duke basketball: Blue Devils face pivotal weekend

This weekend’s visits will arguably be the most important — and possibly the last — across the entire 2020 Duke basketball recruiting cycle.

Tuesday evening, Duke basketball commit Jalen Johnson, a five-star small forward who ranks No. 4 on the 247Sports 2020 Composite, retweeted one of ESPN windbag Stephen A. Smith’s countless deafening clips in order to express his energy level in anticipation of his trip to Durham. It’s exactly the type of energy that the program needs in town this weekend.

In addition to energy alone, though, Johnson will need to pack his recruiting A-game in order to help convince his current roommate and teammate, IMG Academy (Fla.) center Mark Williams, to join him as a member of the #TheBrotherhood.

Williams, whose official Duke visit represents his last leading up to his Nov. 1 announcement, is the big man Mike Krzyzewski and his staff desperately need. Despite their 2020 class ranking as the nation’s best due to five top-40 pledges in tow — Johnson, Jeremy Roach, D.J. Steward, Henry Coleman, and Jaemyn Brakefield — it still does little at the moment to address the problematic assumption that the 2020-21 roster will lack returning players taller than 6-foot-7.

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While Williams — a 7-foot-1, 225-pound four-star who ranks No. 29 — can’t fill the deficiency alone, his commitment would erase a chunk of the worries by guaranteeing next year’s Blue Devils a worthy starter at the five-spot. No doubt Duke would profit from his 7-foot-4 wingspan, relentless motor, mature demeanor, gift for blocking shots, eye for rebounds, and above-average mobility for a guy his height (picture a taller version of former Duke basketball champ Amile Jefferson).

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True, the Norfolk, Va., native needs to add to his portfolio of post moves — as well as spend more time in both the cafeteria and weight room. But other than Makur Maker, who is petitioning to be eligible for the 2020 NBA Draft, Williams is the top-ranked 2020 center still left on the board. Next is Hunter Dickinson, who sits at No. 34 and was in attendance at Countdown to Craziness while on his official Duke visit last weekend (he plans to decide on a college within the next few weeks).

Of course, the ideal scenario for Coach K and his cohorts would be to haul in both Williams and Dickinson; however, most insiders see it is an either/or. And of the two, the coaches appear to have the best shot at landing Williams, whose other two finalists are Michigan and UCLA and whose Crystal Ball unequivocally says he’s Durham-bound (Dickinson, whose Crystal Ball makes no mention of the Blue Devils, will pick between Duke, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Florida State).

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On hand to give Johnson and the Duke basketball staff a hand at sealing the deal with Williams could be Roach. There is no official word that the five-star point guard is planning to make the trip, but it’s easy to think he might considering he lives within driving distance of the campus and had intended to attend Countdown to Craziness but in the end was unable to.

Though it would be uniquely helpful if Coleman, a close friend to Williams, was also on hand, the fact that the four-star power forward did make the trip last weekend makes it seem highly unlikely he will be.

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One thing is for sure: with such an important decision at stake, the Blue Devils need as many hands on deck as possible.

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