NCAA Basketball: Will Duke, Villanova, or Virginia land 5-star SG Trevor Keels?

Duke Blue Devils

It’s rarer to see the Blue Devils not involved for a five-star prospect these days. They have everything that a recruit wants. A Hall of Fame head coach (Mike Krzyzewski) and quality supporting staff, an elite academic University, great conference (ACC), opportunity to compete at the highest of levels and a shot at a national title, and most importantly, a chance to become a future NBA player.

Things are looking to be the same for the upcoming season, thanks to a top-3 overall recruiting class filled with several five-star prospects. That includes a pair of combo guards in DJ Steward and Jeremy Roach, along with 6’6 guard/wing Jalen Johnson. Of the trio, Johnson is most likely to leave after next season, while it’s up in the air for both guards.

For Keel’s sake, as long as one of those two ball-handlers leave, that opens it up very nicely for him to start at the natural two-spot. Otherwise, Coach K may have to ask one of them to come off the bench as a sophomore. Keels couldn’t play at the small forward position because that’s already reserved for AJ Griffin, a five-star forward already committed in the class.

Besides Griffin, Duke also has top-5 overall power forward recruit Paolo Banchero also part of the class as well. Keels would be the third in the group, allowing the Blue Devils to potentially focus on another five-star player in Patrick Baldwin Jr. to round out the class, which would easily be No. 1 overall in 2021.

The only concern for Keels is that in that dream scenario, he would actually be the worst rated player. And not everyone can be a 15+ ppg scorer for the Blue Devils. We saw this last season with former five-star prospect Matthew Hurt, who had his ups and downs and fell into a “role player” type, as Vernon Carey Jr. became the go-to guy. If Banchero and Griffin are superstar-like guys out the gate, Keels may see his production go down as a result.