Duke Blue Devils Master Recruiting in New Era

It’s been said here before, but the point deserves reiteration. The Duke Blue Devils have usurped the Kentucky Wildcats as college basketball’s preeminent recruiting powerhouse, and their recent successes have solidified that status.

Duke’s continued dominance in the one-and-done era is just another nod to the coaching genius of head coach Mike Krzyzewski, the only coach who has seamlessly incorporated elite talent with four-year players to create a modern blueprint for success that is unrivaled by his contemporaries.

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Even John Calipari, the man who seemingly discovered the viability of loading his roster with single-year rental players, has yet to master his game plan. While most people are drawn to his gaudy number of Final Four appearances, it’s important to remember that the wheels have fallen off at Kentucky before.

A year after winning a national championship in 2012, the Kentucky Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament all together in 2013. That team, crippled by a combination of inconsistent point guard play and an injury to future lottery pick Nerlens Noel, lost to Robert Morris in the first round of the NIT.

At Duke, no such inconsistency exist. The last time Duke has missed the NCAA Tournament with Coach K at the helm for a full season was in 1983. Since the start of the one-and-done era, the Blue Devils have made every NCAA Tournament, and only once failed to secure one of the top three seeds in their region.

Duke recruited their first one-and-done prospect in 2010, almost accidentally, when they brought in Kyrie Irving from St. Patrick’s High School in New Jersey. The rapid ascent of Irving’s star was somewhat unexpected. In earnest, Coach K’s first legitimate dalliance with a player that was clearly only interested in a college basketball cameo was Jabari Parker, who signed in 2013.

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Parker’s success during his one season at Duke opened the door for the recruiting victories that led to last year’s national championship.

Jahlil Okafor stepped onto campus with little intentions of seeing his sophomore year, but Justise Winslow and Tyus Jones arrived with foggier outlooks on their NBA future.

However, by the end of the season, Winslow was a guaranteed lottery pick and Jones was a lock to be selected in the first round. From that moment, it became clear that Kentucky was no longer the only program offering express tickets to the NBA.

The tremors of this realization were felt immediately.

This season, Duke brings the number one recruiting class in the country to Durham. McDonald’s All-Americans Chase Jeter and Brandon Ingram will be vying for the opportunity to continue the trend of Duke freshman heading to the pros, while Derryck Thornton and Luke Kennard look to be the five star talents that stick around for a little bit longer. Even Antonio Vrankovic, a rare three-star commit, projects to be a contributor in the frontcourt rotation at some point in the future.

That seems to be the interesting spin that Coach K has put on the one-and-done blueprint. While the top stars in his program may be entering and exiting via a revolving door, Duke is still looking to develop talent as well.

Kentucky has always had the diamond studded future pros, but they’ve rarely landed the talented glue guys that ensure consistency and success. McDonald’s All-American talents like Matt Jones, Amile Jefferson, Grayson Allen, and Quinn Cook don’t go to Kentucky — obviously, they do go to Duke.

This complex formula of All-American role players blending with All-American pro prospects is the marriage that college basketball has been searching for. Purists may find it unusual to see freshman and sophomores in starring roles while juniors and seniors support and supplement, but at this point, it’s refreshing to see juniors and seniors playing at all at elite programs.

This complex formula of All-American role players blending with All-American pro prospects is the marriage that college basketball has been searching for.

Case in point: Kentucky’s senior class accounted for 0.5 points per game last year.

At this point there’s not much to debate. Simply put — Duke is the new Kentucky, and not only have they “adopted” the shtick of their blue-blooded Bluegrass brethren, they’re doing it in a way that’s much more refined and sustainable.

Coach K has taken a Coach Cal creation — and quietly perfected the model.

If there’s any doubt about this, the Blue Devils’ latest recruiting haul may end the debate for the foreseeable future.

Duke has owned this year’s early recruiting period, and their dominance is likely to continue.

Jayson Tatum, a consensus top-three prospect who holds the number one spot in our Busting Brackets FAB 50, has already committed to Duke for next year.

Harry Giles (#2 in the FAB 50), another player in the top overall prospect conversation, is widely expected to commit to Duke as well.

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Marques Bolden (#34 in the FAB 50), a five-star center from Dallas, is also rumored to be at the top of the Duke wishlist.

Tatum and Giles are surefire one-and-done prospects, but fellow five-star prospect Frank Jackson is the type of player that could stick around for awhile before turning pro. The thought of Jackson and Thornton in the same backcourt is almost unfair, especially when you realize that Grayson Allen and Luke Kennard will also be on the roster as well.

Most recently, the Blue Devils added Javin DeLaurier to their Class of 2016. Delaurier is a four star prospect who won’t even be thinking about the NBA when he gets on campus. His primary goal will be cracking the rotation.

DeLaurier projects as a rail thin forward who’ll make a solid contribution for four years. He’ll graduate, and grow immensely in the process. There’s a chance he never plays a minute in the NBA. His career arc will likely mimic that of current Duke forward Amile Jefferson, a player who is expected to play a key role for the Blue Devils in his (gasp!) senior season.

Recruits like DeLaurier seem to be the missing piece in many of Kentucky recruiting classes. The over-reliance on instant gratification often leaves the program in a constant scramble to fill its roster with immediate contributors.

After striking out on five-star prospects such as Malik Newman and Stephen Zimmerman, the Wildcats were forced to dip into the junior college ranks for one prospect (Mychal Mulder), and facilitated the reclassification of two international prospects in order to get them on campus a year early (Jamal Murray and Isaac Humphrey).

This year, the recruiting dominoes fell in place. Kentucky will go into the season featuring a unique, yet loaded, class of prospects. However, the constant strain of cobbling together enough prospects for an annual reload has proven to be an arduous process. It could only be a matter of time before the Wildcats suffer another disastrous season because of this culture of yearly uncertainty.

Then again, there are few things more certain than John Calipari bringing in top five recruiting classes.

Regardless, it’s clear that going into the 2015-2016 season, the Duke Blue Devils are the big dog on the block in terms of recruiting elite talent. Their model for sustained depth, development, and consistency is the new standard that elite programs will aspire to as we move forward in the one-and-done era.

It may have taken a few years for him to fully figure it out, but Coach K has seemingly remastered the art of recruiting during this new era, and once again Duke is the premiere program in college basketball.

Next: Minnesota Golden Gophers Gain Pair of Commits

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Duke Blue Devils: Coach K Masters Recruiting in the One-And-Done Era

By Chris Godfrey | Sep 28, 2015

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