Ex-Duke basketball coach hands Jon Scheyer his first loss
By Matt Giles
The recent Duke basketball recruiting flurry has suddenly quieted, for now.
Until now, Duke basketball groupies could gloat that Jon Scheyer, who will become the program’s head coach in the spring, was undefeated as a recruiter in his new role as Mike Krzyzewski’s successor-in-waiting.
Well, that’s no longer the case after the Blue Devils’ recruiting loss on Tuesday afternoon in the high-profile battle for La Lumiere (Ind.) four-star combo guard JJ Starling. The 6-foot-4, 180-pound sharpshooter, who ranks No. 33 overall on the 247Sports 2022 Composite, announced his intention to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
And this means that Scheyer’s first recruiting L in an official capacity has come at the hands of Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey, whose tenure as a Duke assistant (1987-95) eons ago coincided with five straight Final Four trips and two national titles (1991, 1992).
Starling picked Notre Dame over Duke and three other finalists: Northwestern, Stanford, and Syracuse.
Where this leaves 2022 Duke basketball recruiting efforts
Despite coming up short for JJ Starling — and to an ACC foe, mind you — the Duke Blue Devils still own the nation’s top 2022 class, according to the 247Sports Team Rankings. Plus, consider that all four prized commits have pledged their Blue Devil allegiance within the past three months.
In other words, it’s not as if Jon Scheyer and his crew have suddenly gone ice-cold in the recruiting game. Their impressive haul consists of four-star shooting guard Jaden Schutt, five-star power forward Dariq Whitehead, five-star power forward Kyle Filipowski, and five-star center Dereck Lively.
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Schutt sits at No. 56 overall on the 247Sports 2022 Composite. Meanwhile, Lively, Whitehead, and Filipowski rank No. 2, 5, 8, respectively.
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Now, per 247Sports, only two current high school seniors still hold Duke basketball offers in five-star small forward Mark Mitchell and five-star combo guard Anthony Black. Of the two, it looks as if the Blue Devils’ best chance is with Mitchell, who will be on an official visit in Durham this weekend and in attendance at Countdown to Craziness; he plans to announce in December.