NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Duke now in picture for grad transfer Seth Towns

Has former Ivy League MVP Seth Towns timetable to make college decision change?

Highly-touted grad transfer Seth Towns tweeted on Monday that he will make his much-anticipated college decision this week. However, that timetable may have changed with Duke recently getting involved with the former Harvard star.

Duke’s involvement in Towns’ recruiting is a little perplexing. Granted Crimson head coach Tommy Amaker is a former player and an assistant coach at Duke, but the Blue Devils are currently over the 13 players scholarship for the upcoming season. The Blue Devils have already signed six players in their 2020 recruiting class.

Duke had just 12 scholarship players on its roster in 2019-20 and will lose three seniors to bring that total down to nine players. That roster number could dwindle further if any of the team’s five early NBA Draft candidates decide to leave. Sophomore Tre Jones and freshman Vernon Carey are the most likely to depart though Matthew Hurt, Cassius Stanley, and Wendell Moore may choose to join them. So, if Jones and Carey are the only two to bolt Durham this summer, that would leave the Blue Devils right at the scholarship limit.

Given that scenario, in order for the Devils to bring Towns on board, someone would have to transfer or coach Mike Krzyzewski could revoke former walk-on Mike Buckmire’s scholarship. Buckmire, who was given a scholarship before this past season, saw just 16 minutes of action over eight games in 2019-20.

Before this recent development, Towns was down to six schools. Towns, who is ESPN’s top grad transfer, has not played since injuring his knee during Harvard’s loss to Penn in Ivy League final two years ago. The 2017-18 Ivy League MVP can score on all three levels and is an outstanding shooter as well as a  decent defensive rebounder. He averaged 16 points along with 5.7 rebounds as well as 2.1 triple while shooting 43.5% from the floor and 39.2% from beyond the arc that year.

So, where will the 6-7 sharpshooting forward end up? I don’t see the Blue Devils as a fit right now, and if the Towns is really serious about Duke, he will likely have to wait and see what happens with the roster. Michigan appears to be the least likely destination among the teams listed in his final six schools to secure his services. Meanwhile, Virginia, Syracuse, Kansas, Ohio State, and Maryland have holes on their roster that Towns could fill.

Ohio State and Kansas are kind of in the same boat as Duke, meaning that the Buckeyes and the Jayhawks will have to rework their roster as they are currently over the scholarship limit. Saying all that, I believe that the Buckeyes are the favorites to land the Columbus (OH) native. I would then put Virginia next, followed by Maryland, and Syracuse.