Duke basketball begins pursuit of No. 1 ranked recruit in Class of 2026

The Duke basketball program has not landed a commitment from a player in the Class of 2025 yet but that is not stopping Jon Scheyer and his coaching staff from beginning its pursuit of 2026 recruits.

According to his father, the Blue Devils have made initial contact with St. John's Bosco (Calif.) superstar Brandon McCoy Jr.

McCoy Jr., listed as a 6-foot-4 point guard, is ranked as the No. 1 player in the 247Sports Composite rankings. Interestingly, he currently shares the honor at the top of the rankings with Prolific Prep's (Calif.) Tyran Stokes.

Scheyer was able to reach out to 2026 players on the June 15 and despite Duke not making any formal offers to prospects, the Blue Devils have made it clear which prospects have caught their eyes early in the evaluation period.

Despite not landing the offer from Duke yet, McCoy holds offers from UCLA, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Oregon, and others. He has not taken any official visits during his recruitment yet.

The Blue Devils have also made contact with 5-star 2026 prospects Jordan Smith, Caleb Gaskins, Caleb Holt, and Jalen Montonati, as well as 4-star recruit Miikka Muurinen. More interest in other players is expected to come throughout the summer.

Jon Scheyer has expressed that he does not believe Duke will have many more large recruiting classes that are comprised of five of six freshmen, like the Blue Devils currently have on campus.

He expects his program to continue their pursuit of the top tier high school talents but fill out the rest of its roster with players from the transfer portal. Duke landed four players from the portal this offseason while only returning two players from last year's team.

The Blue Devils were not impacted by transfers last offseason, either players leaving or entering the program.