Overall impact of Duke Basketball landing five-star guard Trevor Keels

We’re at the Final Four and conclusion of the Men’s 2021 NCAA Basketball season. But while those teams are still playing, the rest are already getting their rosters together. One of them is Duke Basketball, which has gone through some roster decisions early this offseason.

They lost some players as expected, either to the NBA Draft or the transfer portal. But there still are plenty of high school prospects from the 2021 recruiting class who have yet to make a decision, including a few five-star prospects.

One of them is Trevor Keels, a 6’5 shooting guard out of Fairfax, Virginia. A consensus top-20 overall prospect and listed by 247sportsComposite as a five-star recruit, Keels is a tremendous shooter and scorer with size and athleticism that should translate to the next levels of college and eventually, the NBA.

For a good portion of the recruiting process, there have been three programs mainly in the mix for Keels; Duke, Virginia, and Villanova. And at some point, all three have been considered a leader for his services. But most recently, the Kentucky Wildcats have entered the process, making it a “final 4” for the past couple of months.

In the end, Kentucky wasn’t able to make up enough ground to win out for Keels. And while Virginia was the “hometown” option in a way, they couldn’t land him either. It was largely between the Blue Devils and Wildcats but in the end, Coach K was able to land another five-star prospect for this class.

There’s plenty to take away from all four sides when it comes to Keels’ decision. Here’s my look at each individual team and where they go next after this move.