Duke Basketball: Blue Devils land top-50 class of 2024 prospect Darren Harris

Duke Basketball doesn’t just land five-star recruits, they can land multi-year players as well. Darren Harris is the latest commit, in the 2024 class.

Darren Harris is one of several top players in the 2024 recruiting class to expedite their respective recruitment. He’s a consensus four-star prospect, with 247sportsComposite having him ranked inside the top 50 overall.

What makes the Virginia native such an interesting prospect is that he’s 6’6 and has the size to play the wing as well as the shooting capability to be a shooting guard. He can score in multiple different ways and projects to be a starter at the power conference level.

All of the teams in the region were after Harris who recently limited his options to four teams; Duke, Miami, Maryland, and Ohio State. In the end, one team won the recruiting battle.

It’s the first commitment for Duke Basketball in the 2024 class. They already have five commits in the 2023 class and the No. 1 class currently so they might as well get started with the next crop. The concern with any players that go to Duke that aren’t clearly “one and done” pro candidates is that they can get lost in the shuffle and over-recruited by the next year’s group.

But Harris should be able to find himself a role in the rotation. Shooting has been a concern for the Blue Devils in certain years and could be the case two years from now. Also, there’s a good chance that five-star small forward Mackenzie Mgbako won’t be around by the time Harris arrives, and outside of a few ball-handlers, there aren’t other true shooting guards/wings outside of Jaden Schutt if he’s still around.

Duke also needs players like Harris that’ll likely stick around for more than a year so the team can be older and have experience on the roster. He serves multiple needs for the program and is a quality pickup, even if he doesn’t have the five-star tag next to him.