Duke basketball: Three reasons No. 1 recruit may delay decision day
By Matt Giles
Why the top Duke basketball target might be waiting: HIS DAD’S FUTURE
With a 37-58 record through three seasons at the helm of the Wisconsin-Milwaukee program, Pat Baldwin isn’t exactly a beacon of job security at the moment. And it doesn’t help that his best record, 16-17, came in his first year on the job. But if the father of the nation’s premier prep landed the services of his son, even if only as a likely one-and-done, that would definitely buy him time through at least two more seasons.
Furthermore, seven more months of indecision from his namesake alone would keep Baldwin Sr. from touching down on the hot seat throughout the upcoming season. In other words, the delay from the versatile, confident, bright, advanced, smooth, still-growing star-studded stretch forward could be as simple as a kid looking out for his old man.
Add to that the fact Baldwin Jr. was once a ballboy for another of his suitors with recently disappointing results. Northwestern’s Chris Collins, a Duke basketball product who had Baldwin Sr. on his staff when the Wildcats reached the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2017, has seen his win total decrease each of the past three years (nine last season). So it also wouldn’t hurt Collins if Baldwin Jr. kept the fans in Evanston dreaming big a little while longer.