Jordan Smith, the #4 overall prospect and #1 shooting guard in the 2026 247Sports Composite Rankings class, is beginning to see his collegiate recruitment process heat up as the transfer portal cycle is closing. Per Smith, Duke, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Georgetown, and Syracuse are some of the schools recruiting him the hardest.
Smith took an official visit to Durham back in November before the 2024-25 college basketball season tipped off, marking the five-star prospect's second official visit as of now along with Louisville.
The star guard had high praise for the Blue Devils' program, and in a recent interview with 247Sports insider Dushawn London, Smith talked about the programs recruiting him the hardest. Here's what he had to say about Duke.
"I really like Duke and how they're changing the program around," Smith said. "The coaches always treated me like family when I went up to visit them. It was really fun. I saw my teammates, and it was a good vibe with them."
Smith attends Paul VI Catholic (VA), the same high school that current Blue Devils Darren Harris and Patrick Ngongba II went to. Duke has a pipeline to this high school, as former Blue Devils Jeremy Roach and Trevor Keels also attended Paul VI.
Currently, Smith holds offers from 19 programs, with the most recent offer the top recruit received coming from Darian DeVries and Indiana.
Smith will be an interesting recruit to monitor in the 2026 class, as Duke's backcourt next year is fairly young. The ideal starting backcourt duo for the 2025-26 Blue Devils would be Caleb Foster (Junior) and Isaiah Evans (Sophomore), with Darren Harris (Sophomore) and Cayden Boozer (Freshman) coming off the bench. If all of these guys are significant contributors for the Blue Devils next season, there could be some intriguing offseason decisions in terms of returning or leaving for some of these guards.
As of now, there's no guarantee that Evans will be back in Durham next season. Despite announcing his return for a sophomore year at Duke, Evans entered his name in the 2025 NBA Draft early entry list and will participate in the NBA Draft Combine. The Blue Devils also landed one of the top shooting guards in the portal, Cedric Coward, but there's a great chance he heads to the NBA as well.
If Jon Scheyer loses both Evans and Coward to the NBA, there could be lots of questions surrounding the Blue Devils' roster heading into next season if the coaching staff doesn't make any more backcourt additions via the portal.