The basketball superpower Duke is by no means the only one with a weak recruiting class.
By this point in each of Jon Scheyer’s first three recruiting cycles as head coach, the Duke basketball team had secured at least a pair of highly sought-after pledges, laying the groundwork for a top-tier haul.
However, the recruiting landscape for 2025 is presenting a different tale, and not only for the Blue Devils.
Out of the top 20 prospects on the 247Sports 2025 Composite, only one has emerged victorious. And that one and only five-star commit, guard Darius Acuff Jr. of IMG Academy (Fla.), only declared his commitment to Arkansas last week.
High-profile players’ early decisions have been successfully stifled by the growing chances to capitalize on their brand beginning in high school, as suggested by Travis Branham on this week’s episode of the 247Sports College Basketball Show.
Put differently, there’s no longer any excuse for basically teasing college fan bases.
“In the day of NIL, it is absolutely to the player’s advantage, whether it’s by design by the player, their people around them, or specifically their agents, it plays into their hands to leverage this,” said Branham, “and put on as many schools as possible, garner as many offers as possible — especially from the bluebloods — and keep people believing that there is more than just two or three schools involved.”This has been the slowest recruiting cycle I have ever witnessed in my five years here, and I think that’s the reason.”
Thus, it is true that Jon Scheyer and his colleagues have not yet seen victory from the 13-deep Duke basketball offer sheet, not even from the highly anticipated prep program named after the school’s five-star forward Cameron Boozer of Columbus High School (Fla.).
However, it should not be shocking that all 13 targets are still up in the air and that just one has officially removed the Blue Devils from his official list.
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