Duke basketball: What’s up with recruitment of MJ Rice?

One name on the Duke basketball recruiting trail has become a rumor magnet.

Somewhat surprisingly, former Oak Hill (Va.) small forward MJ Rice, who has not yet announced where he’ll spend his senior year of high school, is absent from the Duke basketball program’s list of upcoming official visitors.

After all, the 6-foot-5, 225-pound five-star, a versatile strongman who has recently risen to No. 18 overall on the 247Sports 2022 Composite, was once a frequent unofficial visitor behind the bench at Blue Devil home games.

At the time, Rice attended nearby Durham Academy, where he spent his freshman and sophomore years.

Plus, it’s worth noting in the case of Rice that he had played there alongside Michael Savarino. Of course, that’s significant since Savarino happens to be the grandson of Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski and is now entering his third season as a walk-on guard under his “Poppy” in Durham.

As things stand, though, Coach K and his staff are currently set to host only the following four 2022 recruits in the coming month: Montverde (Fla.) five-star small forward Dariq Whitehead, Bishop Miege (Kan.) five-star small forward Mark Mitchell, Wilbraham & Monson (Mass.) four-star power forward Kyle Filipowski, and Westtown (Pa.) four-star center Dereck Lively.

Growing G League chatter involving the Duke basketball recruiting prospect

Now, it should be noted here that MJ Rice has continued to regularly mention the Blue Devils when listing those that remain in contact with him. The latest example of that was the 18-year-old pointing out this weekend to Joe Tipton of Tipton Edits that Duke is still in the mix.

That said, Rice also told Tipton that five others are recruiting him the hardest at this juncture: Louisville, NC State, Oklahoma State, Pitt, and Virginia.

At the moment, the 247Sports Crystal Ball labels the Wolfpack as the frontrunner.

On the other hand, respected recruiting expert Andrew Slater predicted via a tweet on Saturday that none of those colleges is Rice’s intended destination.

Instead, adding to the prep’s openness to G League talk in recent months, Slater seemed to insinuate that the pro route might ultimately be more to Rice’s liking.

Or perhaps Slater meant to imply that another attractive NCAA suitor is working covertly behind the scenes. Yet if that was the case, one would think Rice would have mentioned it to Tipton.

Right now, the Blue Devils still have all of zero offers out to 2022 talents. Even the four scheduled visitors sit empty-handed in this regard.