Duke basketball staff acting dangerously cocky on recruiting trail

Nonchalant Duke basketball recruiting efforts could pose a problem.

Surely, at some point, there will be a 2022 Duke basketball offer to report. However, at this point, as Mike Krzyzewski and his assistants continue to fixate on finalizing their 2021 haul, several current high school juniors who heard from the Blue Devils back in June have already hinted at favorites, named finalists, or outright decided on a destination.

Simply put, it could be slim pickings — not to mention the amount of catchup the staff would need to play in open races — if Coach K and his gang don’t soon seriously get the ball rolling on the 2022 trail.

While it’s nice to know several prospects in the class like Duke, none seem so smitten as to delay their recruitments purely for the sake of the snail-paced recruiters in Durham.

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Sure, the attention on the remaining 2021 targets is important. Come the spring signing period, it’d be sweet if Duke adds one or both of Hamilton (Wis.) small forward Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Paul VI (Va.) shooting guard Trevor Keels to its two early 2021 signees in O’Dea (Wash.) power forward Paolo Banchero and Archbishop Stepinac (N.Y.) small forward AJ Griffin.

Such a quartet would represent a quarter of the top 16 on the 247Sports 2021 Composite. That said, of those four, the consensus among insiders is that only Keels might stick around in college for more than one season.

Plus, from the current Duke basketball roster, it’s likely only a couple of freshmen will still be in town as juniors for what will be the 2022 recruits’ freshman campaign.

In other words, it’s quite possible the program’s 2022 collection will need to be historically deep. But at this rate, the idea of it consisting of a bunch of three-stars is looking more and more possible.

The risk involved with Duke basketball’s 2021 offer sheet

Shifting back to 2021, although the 247Sports Crystal Ball still tags Duke as the frontrunner for both Baldwin Jr. and Keels, there’s no guarantee one or both won’t end up elsewhere. The only other prep senior holding an offer from the Blue Devils is IMG (Fla.) center Charles Bediako, who ranks No. 23 and is widely seen as an eventual Alabama commit.

Meanwhile, only eight others who sit inside the top 100 are still up for grabs. And of those eight, none have ever been on Duke’s radar, and most seem set on picking from their current lists of favorites.

So whatever the reasoning is for Duke to come across as “too cool” to hand out either more 2021 offers or its first 2022 offer, the longer the delays play out, the more dangerous the confusing strategy becomes.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more Duke basketball recruiting news and views.