Predicting Duke basketball’s all-important 2022 recruiting class

Continued Duke basketball success could hinge on Jon Scheyer’s first class.

A half dozen 2022 prospects hold Duke basketball offers. A handful more either are or have been somewhere on the program’s recruiting radar.

Naturally, the requisite size of the Blue Devil class depends on all the stay-or-go decisions among underclassmen following Mike Krzyzewski’s upcoming farewell season. That said, as estimated here at Ball Durham earlier this week, successor-in-waiting Jon Scheyer and his gang will likely need to reel in at least four 2022 pledges, perhaps in addition to a transfer or two.

True, roughly a third of the top 100 players on the 247Sports 2022 Composite have already made up their minds on a college destination. And with that in mind, some may find it a tad concerning that Duke is still without its first commitment, especially when considering that commit will represent the first to take a chance on Scheyer as the main man in Durham.

At the same time, though, none of the staff’s six 2022 targets have yet cut the Blue Devils from contention.

So on that positive note, let’s go ahead and forecast four fellas to ultimately comprise Scheyer’s symbolic, all-important first class as Duke basketball’s chief decision-maker. We’ll do so one at a time, from tallest to shortest…