By basketball standards, Jahlil Okafor had seen everything a player could by the time he was a high school senior.
He was the consensus No. 1 player in the Class of 2014 and the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA draft. He was an All-American and a three-time gold medalist internationally. His basketball honors were only outnumbered by his Division I scholarship offers—the first of which he received when he was in eighth grade.
The soft-spoken 7-footer had handled all of the hype with the same calm and poise he displayed on the hardwood. But on the morning of Nov. 15, 2013, the day he and point guard Tyus Jones announced their decision to play together at Duke, Okafor experienced something he rarely felt—anxiety.
He and Jones committed together on national television. Okafor sat in front of his entire school at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago. And despite the nerves, the event represented the end of a recruiting process that had spanned back more than four years.
When the word "Duke" exited Okafor's mouth, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Quickly, anxiety evaporated into pride. The center donned a blue Duke hat, and was so excited he couldn't take it off.
“I was so happy," Okafor said. "I wore my Duke hat that I committed on ESPN—for like a month or two I wore it every day."
By committing to head coach Mike Krzyzewski, Okafor, ranked No. 1 in his class by ESPN, and Jones, ranked fourth, joined shooting guard Grayson Allen as the next crop of future Blue Devils. Allen, ranked 21st in his class by ESPN, had pledged to Duke all the way back in April 2013.
Six days after Okafor and Jones committed, Duke added small forward Justise Winslow—ranked No. 15 in his class by ESPN—to its already-loaded class, which is among the best crops of freshmen Krzyzewski has ever brought to the Blue Devils during his 35-year tenure in Durham.
"This freshman class is just ahead maturity-wise," Krzyzewski said at his first press conference of the season. "The freshmen aren't freshmen—they're Duke basketball players. There's not that differentiation. That doesn't happen all the time, that doesn't happen most of the time. But with this group, it has and we saw that during the summer."
Senior guard Quinn Cook didn't have time to take notice as Duke's freshman class came together at breakneck speed last November. He and the Blue Devil coaching staff were just days into the 2013-14 season and concentrating on integrating newcomers Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood into Duke's system.
It was not until after the campaign met a premature end in the NCAA tournament that Cook was able to realize that the freshman class he was inheriting was a point guard's dream.
"All four of them are special," Cook said. "In the summer, after the season was over, when I finally saw those guys come here—I was so excited. I knew that we could do some special things."
There won't be much time for a learning curve when Duke opens its season against Presbyterian Nov. 14—this year's freshman class is simply too talented not to play a pivotal role in the Blue Devil rotation. Jones, Okafor and Winslow are expected to be in the team's starting lineup come opening day, and Allen should be in line to see serious minutes off the bench.
Of course, Krzyzewski knows that to make a deep tournament run with a lineup that will often feature multiple first-year players, it isn't going to happen overnight.
"We’re not going to be perfect," Krzyzewski said. "They have a lot to learn about the game. They’ve all been well-coached, though. That helps tremendously."
In case there wasn't enough pressure being the most heralded freshman class in recent memory for a program that brings in the nation's top talent every year, Duke's Fab Four will be tasked with rewriting the team's recent March disappointments.
Three of Duke's last four teams have been headlined by high-profile freshmen—Kyrie Irving in 2010-11, Austin Rivers in 2011-12 and Jabari Parker in 2013-14. Those three teams won a combined two NCAA tournament games and were bounced in the opening round twice by teams seeded 14th or lower. The 2012-13 Blue Devils—who were led by three seniors in Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly and Seth Curry—reached the Elite Eight.
History doesn't faze Okafor—even before he plays his first regular season game for Duke, he knows what the program's appropriate expectations are.
“Our goal is to win a National Championship," Okafor said. "That’s why we came here. We thought that was our best opportunity just for us to win a championship. With the guys already here I think we have a great shot.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.