When the Blue Devils take the court in front of the Cameron Crazies for the first time, the players and fans will be doing their best to convince one of the best players in next year's class to join them in Durham, as Tyus Battle will officially visit Duke on October 25th for Countdown to Craziness.
Battle, the 6-foot-5 guard from St. Bernard High School in N.J., recently finished playing for the Gold Medal-winning Team USA in the 17U FIBA World Championships. The combo guard possesses the skill set desired for the ideal two-guard, as he has both a smooth shooting stroke from deep and the ability to get to the rim and finish among the bigs. Battle is joining five-star recruit T.J. Leaf for Countdown to Craziness, making it a crucial weekend for Duke 2016 recruiting’s class.
The New York Post recently covered Tyus Battle and his impressive summer in a must-read piece. We call it must-read, Duke fans because of this paragraph:
“The Duke offer was significant to both father and son. Years ago, while working for Aetna, Gary Battle met Krzyzewski at a speaking engagement. Gary told Coach K he would be recruiting his son one day. When they met again a few years later, at an AAU Tournament on Long Island, Gary made sure Tyus, then just 8 years old, shook Krzyzewski’s hand. He used to call up his son pretending to be Coach K ready to offer a scholarship."
Duke is very familiar with guards from the Garden State as both Jay Williams and Kyrie Irving are N.J. natives. So in this case, it would seem history is on the Blue Devils' side.
Moving back to actual basketball, it was Elite 24 Weekend in Brooklyn, N.Y., as the top high school players were showcased under the bright lights of New York.
Starting with the 3-point shooting contest Friday night, Brandon Ingram displayed his deadly shooting ability as he defeated Chase Jeter, Jayson Tatum and Malik Newman to win the crown. Ingram also spoke with Adam Zagoria after the event, who seems to believe the final five for the talented North Carolina native will be Kansas, Louisville, UCLA, Duke and UNC.
In the game, Team Liberty clung to a 127-116 victory against Team Freedom in the ninth-annual Under Amour Elite 24. Team Liberty was led by newest Duke commit Chase Jeter, who shined as he scored 17 points and grabbed an Elite 24 record 15 rebounds and was named Co-MVP.
After the game, Jeter said this about his performance to Scout.Com:
“I feel like I played well, Going into the game I knew games like these are typically guard games, therefore I put an emphasis on playing hard, running the floor and rebounding. The rest always takes care of itself.”
Duke’s recruiting class 2016 class also impressed as two targets Jayson Tatum and Harry Giles each played well. Tatum scored 14 points for Team Liberty and was instrumental in the win, while Harry Giles was named Team Freedom MVP as he scored 16 points and snagged 11 rebounds.
Giles also discussed his recruitment and the idea of a possible package with Zagsblog:
“Giles listed Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Syracuse, Kansas, Ohio State, UNLV and Texas as the schools recruiting him the hardest right now… He also touched upon possibly teaming up with two of the players also at the Elite 24 game in college: “Jayson Tatum and I talk about that all the time,” Giles said. “I talk to Dennis Smith, too. We all talk about it all the time, but nothing is set in stone.”
With Tatum and Smith also having offers from the Blue Devils, the possibility of the trio creating a super package is certainly something we will be following closely.
Lastly, below are the Top 10 plays from the game featuring 2016 Duke recruits Harry Giles, Thon Maker and Dennis Smith Jr. If anything, stay for the Donovan Mitchell's ridiculous top-ranked dunk. That’s all for this week’s recruiting roundup. Be sure to stay with the Blue Zone for all your recruiting news.
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