Does Duke's Early 2022 Recruiting Focus Show a Shift in Approach?

Blue Devils appear to be less focused on top-10 prospects

Duke coaches reached out to 10 players in the class of 2022 as the open contact period began earlier this week.

Just as significant is the list of players that the Blue Devils have yet to contact, which may be an indication of a shift in Duke’s recruiting focus.

Prior to the pandemic, when high school and AAU games were being played and college coaches could sit in and watch, the Blue Devils were clearly interested in center Jalen Duren, the No. 2 player in the class according to 247Sports, as well as Caleb Houstan, a small forward who is No. 7 in the class.

It appears that neither have been contacted by Duke yet in the current open period, however.

The highest-rated player Blue Devils coaches have made contact with this week is No. 9 Jaden Bradley, a five-star point guard originally from North Carolina and now playing at Bradenton, Florida’s IMG Academy.

Bradley and No. 10 Kijani Wright, a power forward, are the only players rated in the top 10 to hear from Duke so far.

Compare that to the 2021 recruiting cycle: Duke already has a commitment from No. 7 AJ Griffin and is a major factor in the still-open recruitments of No. 3 Patrick Baldwin Jr. and No. 4 Paolo Banchero. The Blue Devils are in the top five for No. 1 prospect Jonathan Kuminga (who, full disclosure, started out as a member of the class of 2022 before reclassifying) and also had contact with Chet Holmgren and Jabari Smith, No. 2 and 5, respectively.

That’s more than half of the top 10 and doesn’t include No. 11 Max Christie and No. 12 Kennedy Chandler, both Duke targets.

In 2020, Duke made offers to three of the top five prospects: Cade Cunningham, BJ Boston and Ziaire Williams. In 2019, five members of the top 10 got offers.

Of course, in 2018, Duke signed three of the top five prospects and offered six of the top 10. The previous year, the Blue Devils signed three of the top seven and offered seven of the top 10.

Duke offered four of the top 10 recruits every season from 2014 to 2016.

In addition, some of Duke’s first contacts this open period include players ranked No. 76 (Rylan Griffen), No. 92 (Noah Shelby) and unrated by 247Sports (JJ Starling).

It seems clear that the Blue Devils staff has shifted focus away from the very top of the prospect list and focused more attention farther down the list. That seems to support the long-speculated theory that Mike Krzyzewski would be moving away from the one-and-done focus as the NBA and G-League made more of a push to have the elite members of each year’s high school class go directly to the pros.

Of course, it’s still early. Duke may follow up with Houstan and Duren soon and could continue to reach out to members of the top 10. And players tend to rise in the rankings after hearing from Duke, so Griffen, Shelby and Starling could end up in much loftier spots as the recruiting cycle goes on.

Still, it seems that Duke, who had an “old-fashioned” team this season, will continue to look toward players who are likely to stick around for several years, as opposed to the one-and-done roster churn of the last decade.