After a busy month of July, recruits will have the opportunity to relax for much of August, which should enable many prospects in the classes of 2013 and 2014 to visit schools and begin narrowing down their list of prospective schools.
Julius Randle-- arguably the top 2013 target for Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski--is expected to announce some sort of list in the near future. Duke is seemingly a lock to be in the top five, along with Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina, while schools such as Baylor, Texas and North Carolina State are very much in the mix too.
Pegging a leader in Randle’s recruitment is virtually impossible still. Duke, however, is considered to be in a very strong position given the strong relationship between assistant coach Jeff Capel and Randle, along with the fact the Blue Devils have a commitment from Randle’s close friend and AAU teammate Matt Jones.
Last week, the first 12 players for the Under Armor Elite 24 game were announced. Duke targets Marcus Lee and Randle have been selected to play in the event. The remaining 12 players will be announced soon and the game will be played August 25 in Los Angeles, Cali.
As for Duke’s 2013 perimeter targets, Robert Hubbs recently told Josh Paunil of National Recruiting Spotlight in an interview, “I want to get the feel up at Duke.”
So expect the dynamic 6-foot-5 wing, who has seen his stock sky rocket over the past few months, to pay a visit to Durham this fall.
Shifting to 2014, it has become well known that Krzyzewski is all-in for Tyus Jones, the top point guard in the class. Recently, college basketball heavyweights Kentucky and North Carolina have aggressively entered the sweepstakes to land Jones as John Calipari and Roy Williams have both recently offered Jones a scholarship.
Similar to most years, the recruiting overlap between Duke and archrival North Carolina is prevalent. In the class of 2013, the Tar Heels and Blue Devils, among many other schools, are vying to land Austin Nichols, Jabari Parker, Lee and Randle.
The class of 2014 recruiting may be even more heated between the two Tobacco Road foes as they both have offers out to Theo Pinson, Justise Winslow, Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones.
And of those shared targets, Winslow and Okafor, who were arguably the two best players for the U.S. U-17 National team that recently won gold, paid a visit to UCLA last week.
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