College Basketball: Breaking down R.J. Barrett’s final three schools

Barrett’s fit at Duke

Much like Kentucky, Duke has become a major destination for one-and-done prospects. Coach K has also placed several talented youngsters in the NBA. This recent string of one-and-done’s for Duke started in 2011 with Kyrie Irving. Austin Rivers (2012) and Jabari Parker (2014) then quickly followed. In just the last three seasons, there have been a total of seven one-and-done’s that have come through Cameron Indoor (2.3 per year in the last three seasons).

With this recent trend, Barrett’s transition to the NBA will be made fairly smoothly if he comes to Duke. After Marvin Bagley runs the school during 2017-18, Barrett would be able to fill in as the star player on a national title contending team at Duke.

As far as his possible teammates, Duke has already signed two top-10 recruits in the class of 2018. With Tre Jones and Cameron Reddish already signed on, Barrett would complete a trio of top-10 recruits who would be able to dominate college basketball. Duke will lose plenty of talent from 2017-18, including Grayson Allen and Bagley, before 2018-19 but with those two freshmen and the possibility of Barrett, the program will be just fine.

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Overall, whoever ends up receiving the commitment of R.J. Barrett will come away as a huge winner. He is the top recruit in the class of 2018 and is the type of difference-maker that can make any of these three teams an automatic top-10 team and a contender for a national title. Who will end up snagging Barrett and how soon will he commit?