After declaring his intent to play at Duke in early August, touted recruit Chase Jeter finally put pen to paper Wednesday evening on the first day of the early signing period.
Jeter's future teammate, shooting guard Luke Kennard, made his March commitment official shortly after Jeter signed his letter of intent.
Jeter, the No. 9-ranked recruit in the ESPN Class of 2015 Top 100 signed his letter of intent to come to Durham at 5 p.m Wednesday at his high school, Bishop Gorman, in Las Vegas. Jeter becomes the first official member of Duke's Class of 2015, although Kennard was first to commit to head coach Mike Krzyzewski, accepting Duke's offer in March.
The duo has been linked for awhile now and seemed eager to join Krzyzewski's program early in the recruiting process.
A 6-foot-10 center from Las Vegas, Jeter has good hands and is a force on the glass. He's comfortable down low fighting for position, and displays some nice footwork once he has the ball. The video below leads you to believe Jeter has at least some range, but it's a small sample size—most of his finishes are at and above the rim.
Jeter's 6-foot-10 frame will need some filling out once he arrives on campus next year, and could evolve into a strong and reliable presence in the post for the Blue Devils not unlike Amile Jefferson. At this point in the recruiting process, he is the highest ranked recruit committed to attend an ACC school.
At 6-foot-5 and 180 pounds, Kennard is one of the best shooters in the recruiting class and is ranked No. 26 by ESPN. Although ESPN has him slated as a four-star recruit, other outlets such as 24/7 Sports have the lefty sharpshooter tabbed as a five-star talent.
Kennard's shooting ability should allow him to smoothly transition to the college game and join a deep perimeter rotation in Durham next season. Unless players surprisingly leave for the NBA following the upcoming season, Rasheed Sulaimon, Grayson Allen and Matt Jones will be around to mentor Kennard.
Last November was one of the best recruiting months in Duke history, with the dual commitment of Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones and the follow-up commitment of Justise Winslow a week later.
This year, Krzyzewski and his staff got some of the drama out of the way earlier in the year by locking up commitments from Jeter and Kennard, but will still get to welcome two new members to the Blue Devil fraternity Wednesday.
Keep up with the Blue Zone for all Duke basketball recruiting news as the Blue Devils try to add to next year's class in the coming weeks.
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