Decision time arrives: Will Duke basketball land Patrick Baldwin Jr.?

Duke basketball recruiting target Patrick Baldwin Jr. has announced a date.

A Tuesday tweet from ESPN recruiting director Paul Biancardi reports that Hamilton (Wis.) small forward Patrick Baldwin Jr. will unveil his college choice on SportsCenter at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. The heralded five-star will pick between a Duke basketball future plus two other official finalists in Georgetown and Milwaukee.

Baldwin ranks No. 4 overall on the final 247Sports 2021 Composite. He has been on the radar of the staff in Durham for three-plus years.

Across the past 12 months, the 6-foot-10 silky sharpshooter had been down to 10 potential landing spots; apparently, though, Kentucky, Michigan, Northwestern, UCLA, UNC, Virginia, and Wisconsin are no longer in contention.

If Baldwin chooses the Blue Devils, then their 2021 efforts will instantly move from No. 3 to No. 1 on the 247Sports Class Rankings. The current Duke basketball signees are O’Dea (Wash.) five-star power forward Paolo Banchero, Archbishop Stepinac (N.Y.) five-star small forward AJ Griffin, Paul VI (Va.) five-star shooting guard Trevor Keels, and Blair (N.J.) four-star point guard Jaylen Blakes.

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Two more newcomers are on tap as well in the form of grad-transfer forwards: Theo John from Marquette and Bates Jones from Davidson.

So is Patrick Baldwin Jr. going to don Duke basketball gear?

True, at the time of this article, three of the eight 247Sports Crystal Ball picks still favor the Blue Devils to wind up with the 18-year-old sensation.

But the other five all project Patrick Baldwin Jr. to play for his father, Milwaukee head coach Pat Baldwin. Plus, the Georgetown chatter has picked up significant steam among recruiting insiders in the past month or so.

All that said, the Baldwin camp seems to have been relatively mum as of late, never seriously hinting at which school stands the best chance.

Now, keep in mind that Duke basketball’s official Twitter account revealed last week the jersey numbers of all the confirmed new guys and also tweeted a breakdown of the incoming recruits. Wouldn’t the social media team have waited to do this if Mike Krzyzewski and his gang felt confident about adding Baldwin to the bunch?

Probably.

On that note, the final gut feeling here is simply that Patrick Baldwin Jr. won’t become a Blue Devil.

Of course, it wouldn’t hurt this writer’s feelings to find out otherwise come morning.