Duke basketball: Three new clues in Patrick Baldwin Jr. chase

Latest hints in Duke basketball pursuit of top recruit: THE NEW PREDICTION

Now that former 247Sports chief expert Evan Daniels is working as an agent while Corey Evans of Rivals is moving on to a scouting job with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Joe Tipton of Tipton Edits has definitely moved up a few notches among recruiting insiders.

That said, a certain level of required secrecy comes with Tipton’s self-created gig, which involves helping many top recruits to unveil their lists and final decisions on social media while promising not to disclose what he knows in advance of said unveilings. Taking that into account, his latest round of 2021 predictions and accompanying explanation stand out as potentially meaningful.

Among his tweeted predictions on Tuesday, Tipton tagged as future Blue Devils both Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Paul VI (Va.) shooting guard Trevor Keels, who ranks No. 16 on the 247Sports 2021 Composite. Under the tweet, which also forecasted one Duke basketball target to end up at Alabama in IMG (Fla.) five-star center Charles Bediako, he explained the following about his picks:

“Some I’m confident about, some are an educated guess, but ALL are subject to change…If a player isn’t pictured, then I either don’t have a prediction for them or they have already told me their college decision.”

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Reading between the lines, it’s apparent that an ultimate decision for either Baldwin Jr. or Keels — keep in mind that both five-stars used Tipton Edits to announce their lists, suggesting they may do the same for their final announcements — is at least more than a day or two away.

Plus, those two predictions align with what the 247Sports Crystal Ball says for both recruits and what the Rivals FutureCast says in the case of Baldwin Jr. (the FutureCast still shows Keels opting for Villanova over Duke).

Putting it all together, at this point, Blue Devil fans should still like the chances of a historically loaded Duke basketball squad taking the floor the season after next and including 2021’s No. 1 recruit.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more on Patrick Baldwin Jr. plus other Duke basketball recruiting news and views.