Duke basketball finally enters fray for dynamite five-star recruit

Duke basketball’s 2022 offer sheet has quickly grown to a handful of names.

Around this time last year, Mark Mitchell was among the first 2022 recruits to receive a call from the Duke basketball recruiting team. Then in May, the Sunrise Christian (Kan.) small forward was the absolute first in the class to report a scheduled official visit to the school in Durham.

So it sure seemed as if the explosive athlete would be among the first two or three recipients of a 2022 offer from the Blue Devils.

Instead, Duke basketball chief-in-waiting Jon Scheyer, who is preparing to take over for coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski after the upcoming 2021-22 season, appears to have selected three or four other fellas before extending an offer to Mitchell.

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Those prospects are Westtown (Pa.) five-star center Dereck Lively, Montverde (Fla.) five-star small forward Dariq Whitehead, Coppell (Texas) four-star combo guard Anthony Black, and La Lumiere (Ind.) four-star point guard JJ Starling.

Offer finally in hand for Duke basketball recruiting target Mark Mitchell

Ahead of Mark Mitchell’s trip to Duke next week — looks as if he’ll be alongside Lively in addition to Wilbraham & Monson (Mass.) four-star power forward Kyle Filipowski — the 6-foot-8, 205-pound multifaceted five-star tweeted this week that the Blue Devils have now extended him an offer.

Thereby, Scheyer and his gang officially entered what has become a loaded race.

Mitchell, who presently sits at No. 10 overall on the 247Sports 2022 Composite, has already been to UCLA, Missouri, and Kansas in the past few weeks. Missouri delivered its offer this month. Kansas, UCLA, and UNC all did so many months ago.

Meanwhile, Scheyer awaits his first pledge as soon-to-be head honcho. Given the number of offers suddenly on the table and Duke visitors on tap this weekend, that could be just around the corner.