Duke basketball: UNC with massive lead in 2024 recruiting rankings
North Carolina opened a big lead over the Duke basketball program in the recruiting rankings.
Recruiting wars on Tobacco Road have typically favored the Duke basketball program in recent years but the North Carolina Tar Heels are making a lot of noise in the Class of 2024.
Hubert Davis landed his fourth prospect in the high school junior class this week with five-star guard Ian Jackson.
Jackson, a Cardinal Hayes (NY) standout and No. 2 player in the Class of 2024, becomes yet another high profile guard in the New York City area to commit to the Tar Heels joining Simeon Wilcher (2023) and Elliot Cadeau (2024) while the program already has R.J. Davis in the fold.
North Carolina now hold a massive lead for the top recruiting spot in 2024 with four total pledges, split between five-stars and four-stars.
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Both Jackson and Cadeau are listed as five-stars while center James Brown and small forward Drake Powell are the four-stars lined up to play in Chapel Hill.
Duke expressed interest in both Ian Jackson and Elliot Cadeau but never offered either guard while head coach Jon Scheyer did offer Brown in late July and he visited Duke in in late October before committing to North Carolina on January 2.
The Blue Devils currently only have one commit in the Class of 2024, four-star sharpshooter Darren Harris, and its class is ranked No. 8 in the country.
Baylor, Rutgers, Iowa State, Arizona, Ohio State, and Illinois separate the rivals in their 247Sports recruiting rankings but there will still be plenty of movement in the coming months.
Updates on Duke basketball recruiting efforts in 2024
The biggest recruiting target in the Class of 2024 for Duke remains Dylan Harper.
Harper was in attendance for the Blue Devils victory over Iowa at Madison Square Garden and has continued to rise up the recruiting boards during his stellar play at Don Bosco Prep (NJ) this season.
The only Crystal Ball Prediction in the 247Sports database links Dylan Harper to the Blue Devils but there is still a lot to be determined in his recruitment as Rutgers, the program that held his brother Ron Harper Jr., remains heavily involved.
The Scarlet Knights also landed its first five-star prospect last weekend in 2024 forward Ace Bailey.
Duke has been inside the Top-3 of the final recruiting rankings every year since 2013 with the exception of 2021 when the Blue Devils’ recruiting class was placed No. 6 but led to the Final Four by Paolo Banchero, the eventual No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft.
North Carolina has not finished with a higher ranked recruiting class than Duke since 2020.