Duke finally has a second member for its Class of 2015.
Chase Jeter, long rumored a future Blue Devil, made it official Monday night when he announced to the world his college decision by unveiling his “Here Comes Duke" t-shirt on ESPNU. Since the announcement, Jeter has been very active on twitter, trying recruit one more player to join Duke's Class of 2015: Brandon Ingram.
Speaking of Ingram, the North Carolina native finished his UCLA visit early in the week and then headed to Duke this past weekend for his official visit. The timing of the visit could not be better for Duke, as the Jeter commitment had created a lot of momentum about Ingram-to-Duke.
Nothing has emerged about Ingram’s visit, but he did tweet this interesting piece of information late Sunday night:
Although another major player has gotten involved with the talented forward, Duke should comfortably be in his top seven. Ingram will unofficially visit North Carolina Monday. Stay tuned as details emerge about either visit.
Scouting ahead
In addition to Ingram, Duke also had another highly-touted player on campus this weekend.
As we reported late Sunday night, the Blue Devils extended an offer to their first 2017 target—Troy Brown Jr. Although it’s way too early to begin to predict Brown’s recruitment, Jeter, a fellow Las Vegas native, did tweet this late Sunday night:
Brown had this to say to 24/7sports about getting an offer from such a prestigious school so early:
"It's a blessing especially to have it at such a early age it shows that hard work does pay off."
We will continue to keep tabs on the talented rising 2017 target.
Back to basketball
Switching back to actual basketball, Duke fans had their first chance to watch the future this weekend, as the USA U17 FIBA National Team got things started.
Although three unlikely 2015 targets Diamond Stone, Henry Ellenson and Ivan Rabb are on the team, the key players for Duke fans to watch are the 2016 recruits Tyus Battle, Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum. Duke has already offered the trio and each has the potential to become a cornerstone for future Duke teams.
In the first game against Greece, Tatum and Giles both started while Battle came off the bench. Tatum finished with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting along with one rebound and one assisit. Giles scored four points on just 2-of-5 shooting and added four rebounds. Battle was 1-of-2 from behind-the-arc, as he finished with just three points. While none of the three 2016 stars had big games, Stone took over by dropping 22 points and dominating the glass to the tune of 10 rebounds and four blocks.
In the second game against Angola, the trio of youngsters preformed much better. Harry Giles got the start again and rebounded from his poor performance with a game-high 14 points and a ridiculous +28 plus/minus while on the court. Tatum also started and finished with 10 points. Battle, who came off the bench, had a strong game, scoring eights points and adding five rebound from the guard position.
If you want a chance to watch these potential Blue Devils in action, Team USA has its final preliminary game today at 10:45 EST on ESPNU. Then the Round of 16 begins on Tuesday, with the Championship culminating August 16th at 1p.m.
Lastly, the ELITE 24 Roster was announced this past week and a number of Duke recruits or commits were on it.
Duke commit Chase Jeter was joined by fellow 2015 targets Rabb, Jaylen Brown and Brandon Ingram to represent their class. In the Class of 2016, Thon Maker, Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum and Dennis Smith Jr. were selected. The Class of 2017 is unsurprisingly the smallest faction, with none other than Brown Jr. making up half of the class' representatives. He will look to make his mark amongst his older and more established peers.
The ELITE 24 game will take place August 23rd and can be seen on ESPNU at 7p.m..
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