As we discussed before, last weekend, Duke hosted two five-star recruits: 2015 wing Brandon Ingram and 2017 point guard Blake Harris. The former has been discussed here many times, and this week his high school coach spoke to Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog and had this to say:
“He will decide early but sign in the spring,” Perry Tyndall said. “Exactly when he commits, I’m not sure. He still has some uncertainty.” Ingram has a final six of Duke, N.C. State, North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA and Kansas.
Although many knew Ingram before last week, the name Blake Harris was new to many people.
Last week, The Chronicle's Jackson Korman spoke to the dynamic five-star point guard and discussed his reaction to the new attention he is receiving, life on the recruiting trial and more. Here are the highlights of the chat:
On how he would describe his game and which player(s) he models it after: “I describe my game as a pass first point guard in score when needed I also like to play defense to get plenty of steals. I model my game after probably Brandon Jennings and Chris Paul.”
On what his summer goals were:
"At the beginning of the season I was not known really so I just wanted to get out there to be noticed and to get looked at colleges but later on during the season I got a lot of attention so I got a couple of offers."
On life on the recruiting trail and which schools have offered him so far:
"It's getting a lot smoother. It was hectic after getting all of the offers but now I'm getting use to it. Fsu, vt, Cincy, Georgia tech, uncg, norfolk st have all offered."
Harris also disclosed that he’s been hearing from Duke more recently, with his main contacts being associate head coach Jeff Capel and assistant coach Jon Scheyer.
He also mentioned his friendship with Quinn Cook—who he met at the barbershop and played a few times in one-on-one—and said that although his dad did attend North Carolina, that will not factor much into his ultimate decision of where to play basketball. Harris also characterized his Duke visit as "electrifying," and said his jump shot has improved, but he's still working on not turning it over as much.
In other news for Duke targets, 2016 recruit Dennis Smith, Jr. and his Trinity Christian team opened the season this past weekend and Smith Jr quickly reminded fans why is talked about as the top point guard of his class scoring 18 points, two of which came on this must-see dunk:
Continuing with the 2016 class, Harry Giles continued his torrid start as he had 25 points and 11 boards in his team’s win against Ravenscroft and Tyus Battle was in the house Saturday night as Duke dispatched Stanford and won the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament title.
Lastly, 2016 PF T.J. Leaf announced that he choose to attend Arizona and become a Wildcat rather than be a Blue Devil, Gator or Bruin. This comes as no surprise, as when he cancelled his trip to Durham for Countdown to Craziness, many expected Arizona to be his likely destination.
That’s all for this week's recruiting roundup, be sure to stay with the Blue Zone for your latest recruiting news.
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