Duke basketball: North Carolina days away from officially losing top recruit

The Duke basketball program is days away from seeing its rival lose its top recruit

The major buzz in college basketball the last week has been all about G.G. Jackson and his potential decommitment from North Carolina as the Duke basketball program idly watches its rival prepare for the news.

Jackson committed to the Tar Heels in April which gave the program the second best recruiting class, behind the Blue Devils, in 2023.

However, On3‘s Jamie Shaw first reported the idea of the Columbia, South Carolina native flipping his commitment to South Carolina and reclassifying into the Class of 2022.

The news was met with major push back from the North Carolina faithful but now seems like an inevitability.

Shaw has pushed his confidence at 95-percent that the flip happens while five recruiting experts and analysts at 247Sports have flipped their predictions from the Tar Heels to the Gamecocks, with the latest being Travis Branham, the National Basketball Analyst for 247Sports.

Branham listed his confidence at 7-of-10.

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More importantly, the news keeps flowing on the recruitment of G.G. Jackson and things could be moving quickly, according to Shaw.

“Last weekend we heard [G.G.] Jackson would announce after Peach Jam again. Early this week, the word is before Peach Jam,” Shaw penned in his most recent column breaking down the situation.

“We say all of that to say, this is something that has been in motion for a while and an announcement will happen this month.”

Peach Jam will be in South Carolina July 17-24, a perfect location to make the big news official.

Jackson is listed as the No. 2 player in the Class of 2023, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings, but On3Sports has the 6-foot-8 forward as its top player in the nation.

Duke basketball stays clear of recruiting drama

Duke has found itself in its fair share of recruiting drama over the years but the Blue Devils steered clear of these headlines thanks to the mutual interest between G.G. Jackson and the program never truly materializing.

Jackson visited Duke in late January after the Blue Devils offered the five-star forward in June 2021.

Jon Scheyer has comprised the top ranked recruiting classes in 2022 and 2023 as the first prospects he landed in Durham as a head coach are five-star center Dereck Lively, five-star forward Kyle Filipowski, five-star forward Dariq Whitehead, five-star forward Mark Mitchell, four-star guard Jaden Schutt, four-star guard Tyrese Proctor, and three-star center Christian Reeves.

ALSO READ: Another Duke commit wins gold medal with Team USA

Five-star forward Mackenzie Mgbacko, five-star guard Caleb Foster, five-star forward Sean Stewart, and four-star guard Jared McCain headline the 2023 crop thus far for the Blue Devils.

North Carolina only has five-star guard Simeon Wilcher committed in 2023, aside from the current pledge of Jackson, and four-star guard Seth Trimble, four-star center Jalen Washington, and four-star forward Tyler Nickel in Chapel Hill in its 2022 recruiting class.

The days are quickly passing by and it seems that G.G. Jackson will be a South Carolina Gamecock at any moment.