Duke Basketball: 5 biggest recruiting disappointments in Blue Devils history

Duke Basketball rarely misses in the recruiting game, but who are the biggest disappointments in program history?

The Duke Blue Devils have been one of the best programs in the country in obtaining top high school products. Duke, which brought in a consensus top-10 recruiting class for nine straight years, has signed 42 5-star players all-time, according to 247 Sports. While the Devils have hit on most of those 42 players, a few did not pan out as expected. Here are the team’s five most disappointing recruitments.

Derryck Thornton

The 6-3 point guard showed up in Durham as the consensus No. 13 rated player in the class of 2015. While Thornton started 20 of his 36 games as a freshman for the Blue Devils, he bounced around the college circuit — playing for Boston College and USC (2 seasons) — as he wasn’t an efficient scorer or good shooter. He was an average distributor although he never was a high assist-to-turnover ratio guy. Defensively, Thornton was above average. He is currently playing for Borac Cacek in Serbia.

Rasheed Sulaimon

The consensus No. 10 player in the class of 2012 is on the list not because of what he did on the court at Duke but for his off the court antics as he became the first player ever dismissed by coach Mike Krzyzewski for failing to meet the standards set for a Duke basketball player. The 2012-13 All ACC freshman selection ended up at Maryland and he has played professionally since 2016, mainly overseas, and is currently a member of JL Bourg Basketball club (France).

Chase Jeter

The 6-10 center, who was the consensus No. 14 player in 2015, came to Durham as a talented defensive player with tremendous upside. Jeter saw limited playing time during his freshman campaign. He was a rotational player for much of his sophomore campaign before being limited over the final two months of the season. Jeter would transfer to Arizona, playing his final two seasons for the Wildcats.

Taylor King

The consensus No. 27 rated recruit in 2007, played just one season for the Blue Devils where he averaged 5.5 points in under 10 minutes a game over 34 appearances. King, known as a shooter, played one season at Villanova before ending his career at D-III Concordia. He did go on to play professionally.

Josh Hairston

The 6-8 forward, ranked as the No. 32 consensus ranked recruit in 2010, never really broke into the rotation for the Blue Devils. He did earn 17 starts, nine coming in his senior campaign, in 121 appearances but averaged less than 10 minutes of court time for his career.

Hairston also finished with 2.1 points, on 44.1% shooting from the field, and 1.5 caroms as well as a PER of 7.6. The Fredericksburg (Va.) native is still playing professionally overseas.