Duke basketball gets richer after ending recruiting dry spell

The Duke basketball program ended its brief recruiting dry spell on Wednesday afternoon. 

It was a nice day at the office for Jon Scheyer, supposedly the 10th best recruiter in the country, after he added to the already loaded Duke basketball recruiting class in 2023.

The Blue Devils landed a verbal commitment from four-star wing TJ Power after the program jumped into his recruitment as soon as he was exploding this summer at various tournaments.

Power selected Duke over North Carolina, Iowa, Virginia, and Boston College.

A newly minted five-star prospect, the 6-foot-8 forward who stars at Worcester Academy (Mass.) is listed as the No. 24 player in the Class of 2023 and No. 1 player in the state of Massachusetts, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

“You go through each college, and you have the pros and cons, and Duke just checked most of the boxes,” Power wrote in a blog for SI.com.

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“The overall brand of Duke also really got me. I think I really fit well with all the ideals there and how they approach things at that school.”

TJ Power will be joining five-star forward Mackenzie Mgbako, five-star forward Sean Stewart, five-star point guard Caleb Foster, and five-star shooting guard Jared McCain as next season’s freshmen in Durham.

Duke had not landed a commitment in five months prior to Power’s announcement.

Duke basketball commit could land busy schedule

The unique part of the recruitment of TJ Power was that he had expressed interest in playing baseball at the college he picked and that is currently the plan for him at Duke.

Power told Jason Jordan of Sports Illustrated that he plans to pursue baseball as a pitcher with the Blue Devils.

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Obviously, the basketball and baseball schedules overlap as the Duke baseball team began its regular season on February 18 in 2022 as the men’s basketball program would be in the midst of its conference games.

That is a conversation for Jon Scheyer, Chris Pollard, and TJ Power to have but it’s confirmed that Power will be putting on a Duke basketball jersey next winter in Cameron Indoor Stadium.