A sign of Duke basketball hope: Signees’ comments about Patrick Baldwin Jr.
The Duke basketball staff has obtained signatures from four 2021 recruits: O’Dea (Wash.) five-star power forward Paolo Banchero, who ranks No. 3 in the class; Archbishop Stepinac (N.Y.) five-star small forward AJ Griffin, who ranks No. 12; Paul VI (Va.) five-star shooting guard Trevor Keels, who ranks No. 20; and Blair Academy (N.J.) five-star point guard Jaylen Blakes, who ranks No. 107.
As Keels has pointed out on multiple occasions, Banchero played at least some role in Mike Krzyzewski and his gang sealing the deal with him in early April. Adding to that point, Banchero chimed in on the same day as Keels’ announcement with an encouraging Instagram comment regarding Baldwin, noting a “95 percent” chance in his eyes that the sharpshooter joins the club.
Around the same time, Keels said the following on his Instagram Live:
“AJ and Paolo were recruiting me, and now all three of us are about to go right at . We definitely gonna get him. We gonna try to get him. We 3-for-4 right now, man, so we gotta get that 4-for-4, and we straight.”
Naturally, all the extra time to do so could help the cause of these makeshift Duke recruiters, which leads us to the second positive sign…