Kyrie Irving Update

One of Duke’s top targets for the class of 2010 is point guard prospect Kyrie Irving. This weekend, Irving is at the Deron Williams Skills Academy. A Duke Basketball Journal correspondent caught up with Irving, who was nice enough to share a few things about his recruitment.

1) Irving has a very busy travel schedule for the month of July and said that he is unlikely to take any more recruiting visits until August.

2) He is interested in visiting Duke again because he did not have much time to look around the campus when playing at the Tournament of Champions earlier this year. Kyrie is also looking for the opportunity to have a more extended meeting with the coaching staff on a future visit.

3) Kyrie enjoyed his recent visit to Texas A & M and was impressed with the new state of the art gym and practice facilities.

4) The most important factors influencing his decision have not changed. Irving is still looking for a coach that he can develop a strong relationship with and a school that offers academic programs of interest to him. It’s important that he is comfortable with both the basketball and academic environments of the school he chooses.

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News & Notes – Quincy Miller, Quinn Cook, James McAdoo, and Elliot Williams

As you have all probably heard by now Elliot Williams will be leaving the Duke Basketball team. Williams will transfer to a school closer to home due to family health issues. Reportedly, his mother is sick with cancer. This is obviously a tough break for the Blue Devils, but it is definitely the right move for Elliot and we hope all Duke fans will support him.

2011 Duke prospect Quincy Miller took an unofficial visit to Duke today and walked away with a scholarship offer from the Blue Devils.

Two other 2011 Duke prospects are also in the news. James McAdoo received a scholarship offer from UNC, however he is not ready to commit to a school yet. McAdoo plans on visiting Duke this August.

June 15th was the first day schools could call class of 2011 prospects. Duke guard prospect Quinn Cook has heard from several schools since then (including UNC, Villanova, Georgetown, and others) however, there reportedly has not yet been any contact from Duke.

Miles Plumlee Working Hard in the Off-Season

A suffering point for many Duke Basketball fans over the past few seasons has been the lack of a true post player that can dominate down low. Recently, some summer photos surfaced of current Duke player Miles Plumlee working out with Duke legend Christian Laettner. From the photos it was clear that Plumlee had been hitting the weights in the off-season, however Duke fans did not know exactly how much Plumlee had bulked up. Duke Basketball Journal can now confirm that Miles has added 15 pounds of muscle to his frame. At 6-10, 245 pounds Blue Devil fans should be looking forward to what the new and improved Plumlee can do on the court in the upcoming 2009-2010 season.

New Duke Prospects for 2011

The Duke coaching staff continues to prepare for 2011 by evaluating many of the top players in the country.  Overall, for 2010 and 2011 Coach K and company seem determined to avoid the recruiting misses the have plagued the Blue Devils in recent years.  In a previous post Duke Basketball Journal detailed 9 prospects for 2011.  Also, DBJ recently reported about the growing relationship between LaQuinton Ross and Duke.  Today, DBJ will introduce you to 4 new prospects which Duke is evaluating for its roster needs in 2011.  Here we go.

Thomas Gipson – Power Forward

Height: 6-7

Weight: 240

Hometown: Cedar Hill, TX

School: Cedar Hill HS

AAU Team: Dallas Heroes

Scout.com Ranking: 3 Stars

ESPN Rating: 88

Gipson is a very strong forward that has shown the ability to consistently finish in traffic.  He’s a fierce competitor and is willing to fight it out on the inside.  He’s not the most athletic power forward, but his heart and tenacity are true strengths.  If he continues to improve his all around game and grows a few more inches he will likely have many major programs chasing him.

Lavon Harper – Power Forward

Height: 6-8

Weight: 215

Hometown: Farmville, VA

School: Farmville Fuqua School

AAU Team: Boo Williams

Scout.com Ranking: 3 Stars

Harper is a face up forward that has shown a versatile skill set in the paint.  Opponents need to be aware of his quickness as Harper has the ability to leave his competitors in the dust.

Julian Royal – Power Forward

Height: 6-7

Weight: 190

Hometown: Alpharetta, GA

School: Milton High School

Scout.com Ranking: 4 Stars

ESPN Rating: 96

Julian is a skilled power forward that will likely play as a combo forward at the college level.  He is working on increasing his shooting range and has the ability to knock down the 3 ball with a good look.  In addition to improving his mid range game he will need to improve his ability to gain position in the post.  Overall, Royal is a player with a unique skill set that opponents must be aware of on both ends of the court. 

PJ Hairston – Shooting Guard

Height: 6-5

Weight: 210

Hometown: Greensboro, NC

School: Dudley HS

AAU Team: NC Gators

Scout.com Ranking: 4 Stars

ESPN Rating: 95 

Hairston is a powerfully athletic guard that has deadly quickness and the ability to finish in traffic.  He already has NBA range, although sometimes he settles for his jump shot too often.  Defensively, Hairston uses his size and length to bother opponents and is also developing solid rebounding skills.

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Will Joe Jackson Visit Duke?

It’s a pretty well known fact that for the class of 2010 Duke is recruiting the top 4 point guards – Brandon Knight, Ray McCallum, Joe Jackson, and Kyrie Irving. Of the 4, Jackson is the newest member to be actively recruited by Duke. At this point in time both sides have mutual interest in keeping an ongoing dialogue as Jackson’s recruitment continues to play out.

This past weekend Jackson attended the NBAPA Top 100 Camp. At the camp Jackson reportedly told several different reporters that he would likely use 4 of his 5 official recruiting visits on the following schools: Kansas, Texas, Syracuse, and Memphis. Will Duke get Jackson’s final official visit? The answers remains unknown at this time however several big time programs are likely to be fighting it out for the final spot including Duke, Kentucky, and Ohio State. DBJ will keep you updated on Jackson’s recruitment as it continues to progress.

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Ray McCallum Update

Duke Basketball Journal caught up with Ray McCallum at the NBAPA Top 100 Camp.  Ray was kind enough to discuss both his general and Duke recruiting experiences so far, as well as his plans for deciding on a school.  Here are the takeaways:

1) McCallum mentioned that he has visited Duke twice up to this point, most recently for the Tournament of Champions.  He’s spoken with Coach K a couple of times on the phone, while Coach Collins and Nate James have each individually attended workouts that McCallum has participated in.  Additionally, Ray has spoken with James and Collins over the phone and via email a few times as well. 

2) Last year McCallum mentioned that Kansas was his early leader.  Although he still has a healthy interest in Kansas, McCallum no longer has a leader and says he is evaluating all schools equally.  Coach Self and Coach Dooley visited Ray earlier this year and he continues to have an ongoing dialogue with the KU staff.  Ray also noted that he likes the “style of play” at KU.

3) His list of schools is still quite long.  It includes Kansas, UCLA, Oklahoma, Detroit, Michigan, Michigan State, Duke, Arizona, Notre Dame, Miami, Kentucky, Iowa, LSU, Memphis and possible a few others according to Ray.

4) When asked factors are most important to him in choosing a program McCallum stated that system and style of play were critical.  Additionally, he definitely wants to the chance to compete for playing time as a freshman and hopes to make an impact from day one.

5) McCallum does not have a time frame for choosing a school.  He plans on taking all 5 official visits and is not in a rush to make a decision.  He also mentioned that he is interested in possibly visiting Duke again, since the last time he was there it was a recruiting dead period.

6) It does not bother Ray that Duke and other schools are recruiting other top guards such as Kyrie Irving and Brandon Knight.  He’s not afraid of competition on or off the court and considers the evaluating of other guards to be “just part of the recruiting process.”

7) When asked specifically what he liked about Duke so far McCallum said “Definitely the tradition and the practice facilities at Duke.  Those are two aspects that it’s hard for other schools to compete with.”

8. Ray sees himself as pure point guard in college, not a combo guard.  He likes being the leader and distributor.  McCallum plans to continue working on his shot in his quest to continue to improve his well rounded game.

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Duke’s Best Recruiters, It’s Not Who You Think!

Ok, Ok…

Coach K, Coach Collins, Wojo, and Nate James are all great recruiters. However, at the NBAPA Top 100 Camp this weekend Duke’s top recruiters were its 2010 commits – Andre Dawkins, Tyler Thornton, and Josh Hairston. These 3 guys were spotted on a few occasions talking with top prospect Harrison Barnes and reportedly selling him on Duke.

Luckily for Duke fans it did not stop their as Andre Dawkins and Josh Hairston set their sights on Kyrie Irving as well. Dawkins and Hairston made it known that they would like to have Kyrie as their teammate in 2010.

In a final bit of good news for Blue Devil fans it seems that the mothers of Tyler Thornton and Harrison Barnes are good friends. The two Moms spent a good chunk of the camp side by side.

None of this guarantees that either Barnes or Irving will ultimately commit to Duke. But it’s great to see our future players already being good ambassadors for the University.

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News & Notes from the NBAPA Top 100 Camp (Day 2)

Here is a quick update on Day 2.

– 2010 Duke recruit Andre Dawkins was voted to the All-Star Game.

– In one of the key match-ups of the day Harrison Barnes initially struggled against the defense of Michael Gilchrist.  In the second half though Barnes seemed to find his rhythm and really limited Gilchrist offensively.  Gilchrist did not play the entire second half as he suffered an injury about half way through.  Barnes finished with 16 points and Gilchrist finished with 14.

– Brandon Knight, Fab Melo, and Joe Jackson also played in the All-Star Game.  Knight is a class of 2010 target for Duke and the Duke staff is currently in the process of evaluating Joe Jackson and Fab Melo for further recruiting purposes.

Duke Interested in Fab Melo

Duke Basketball Journal correspondent Mark Williams spoke with Fab Melo at the NBAPA Top 100 Camp. For those who don’t know Melo is 7’0″ 270 pound 5-Star prospect for the class of 2010. Melo had the following to say about his recruitment:

“I have not really added anyone new to my list. My offers still stand at Florida, FSU, UCONN, Louisville, Miami, Syracuse, and Texas. Recently, Duke has been evaluating me. I’m not sure what their future plans are with me.”

It looks like Duke is in the early stages of evaluating Melo. Stay tuned to see if Duke shows increased interest.

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Andre Dawkins Impressing NBAPA Camp Observers

2010 Duke recruit Andre Dawkins is putting on yet another impressive show at this weeks NBAPA Top 1oo Camp.  In yesterday’s action Dawkins scored 17 points in his first game, and finished the day averaging 12.5 points per game.  Dawkins displayed his explosive athleticism throwing down 1-2 dunks a game, and also wowed the crowds with his 3 point stroke on a couple occasions.  Defensively, Dawkins still has some room for improvement before he hits the college game.  Overall, Duke fans should be excited about getting Dawkins on Campus in 2010.  Although his style of play is different, Andre’s athletic ability is similar to that of past Duke guards Jason Williams and Gerald Henderson.