As Duke's players headed to the library to study for final exams, the Blue Devil coaching staff head on the road and continued to scout heavily for the future.
Starting with the 2015 commits, assistant coach Nate James went to Las Vegas Wednesday night to watch center Chase Jeter lead his Bishop Gorman team to a 42-point win over Mojave. Jeter showcased his dominance on both sides of the ball scoring 18 points and adding 7 boards and 5 blocks.
While James was in Las Vegas, head coach Mike Krzyzewski, associate head coach Jeff Capel and assistant coach Jon Scheyer headed to Franklin, Ohio, to watch prized commit Luke Kennard. Kennard did not disappoint his future head coach, scoring 33 points and grabbing nine boards in a blowout win.
Continuing with the class of 2015, Krzyzewski headed back to North Carolina to watch one of the top small forwards in the country, Brandon Ingram. Ingram demonstrated his elite talent, scoring 31 points and adding 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks. Duke was joined by Kansas and N.C. State at the game last week and continues to heavily pursue one of the top players in next year's class.
Switching to the class of 2016, Jayson Tatum was a main focus on the coaching staff, as Coach K, Capel and Scheyer watched him Tuesday night and Coach James headed back to St. Louis to watch him play again Friday night. The small forward is currently the top ranked player by ESPN for the class of 2016.
Speaking of Tatum, in a post for USA Today, forward Harry Giles recently discussed the idea of forming a package with Tatum and another talented member of the class of 2016: point guard Dennis Smith, Jr. All three are being followed heavily by Duke's coaching staff and could have the potential to be the next dynamic package of recruits in college basketball if the idea pans out.
In the story, Giles wrote the following:
“I haven’t really told y’all about the package deal that I mentioned before with myself, Dennis Smith and Jayson Tatum, but it’s definitely something that’s still on the table. We’re talking about it from time to time and we’re gonna start talking about it more and more from this point on to see where everybody’s at with it. I know we all want to play together so we’ll see how onboard everybody is soon.”
That’s all for this week’s busy roundup, be sure to stay with the Blue Zone for all your recruiting news.
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