Who will become the Duke basketball crew’s next recruiting prize, and when?
The 2021 Duke basketball class, which probably needs to be four deep in the end, already contains ideal starting centerpieces in the form of two top 10 five-stars on the 247Sports 2021 Composite: O’Dea (Wash.) power forward Paolo Banchero, who ranks No. 3 overall, and Archbishop Stepinac (N.Y.) small forward AJ Griffin, who ranks No. 6.
But with the commitment to Michigan on Friday from Montverde (Fla.) small forward Caleb Houstan, a five-star who ranks No. 8, there are now only three current high school seniors who have neither accepted nor rejected their Duke basketball offers.
All three are top 25 five-stars: Hamilton (Wis.) small forward Patrick Baldwin Jr., who ranks No. 1; Paul VI (Va.) shooting guard Trevor Keels, who ranks No. 16; and IMG (Fla.) center Charles Bediako, who ranks No. 23.
All three have the Blue Devils among their finalists. Also, all three have insiders believing that they could come off the board in time for the quickly approaching early signing period, Nov. 11-18.
So let’s now look at all three, beginning with the least likely to wind up in Durham. And we’ll finish here with the one Ball Durham sees giving Mike Krzyzewski and his assistants the news they want to hear in November (note: the one in the middle may or may not join the Duke basketball family, but the forecast here is simply that he won’t be the next to do so)…