The recruitment of Jordan Smith Jr. felt more like Cooper Flagg than Cameron Boozer.
There was very little doubt until recently that Smith Jr. wouldn’t be in a Blue Devil uniform next season.
He had been the program’s top target since very early in the recruiting process and all of its efforts were put into him. His high school produced several Duke players. It was the perfect storm – a slam dunk – to commit to Duke.
Then, the Blue Devils started to add other players in the Class of 2026 and other schools became more involved with the Paul VI product. It was becoming gray and cloudy for the Blue Devils, much like Boozer.
There were thoughts that Boozer was a heavy lean towards Miami until he swung to Duke prior to his commitment.
Now, put Duke in Miami’s shoes and Arkansas in Duke’s shoes.
That’s the Jordan Smith Jr. recruitment.
The 5-star guard is set to announce his commitment to the Razorbacks on Friday after dwindling his options to Duke, Arkansas, Syracuse, Indiana, and Georgetown. The latter three options were never serious contenders – this was always a two-horse race and its John Calipari who is crossing the finish line in front of Jon Scheyer.
Duke still has the top ranked recruiting class in the nation with 5-star forward Cameron Williams, 5-star forward Bryson Howard, 5-star guard Deron Rippey Jr., and 4-star center Max Meyer and the expectation that some of its current players will return next season. Â
Smith is currently the No. 2 player in the class, according to 247Sports, only trailing Tyran Stokes for the top spot.
Scheyer and his staff went extremely hard after Rippey, a guard who has major upside as he has shined in his final years of high school. It felt like that commitment was the tipping point of when things started to trend in the wrong direction with Smith Jr.
Duke remains confident in its current recruiting class and its expectations are still sky-high, but it just won’t be Jordan Smith Jr. roaming the hallowed halls of Cameron Indoor Stadium next season.