Duke fans, it’s official. Though not surprising, Matt Jones and Semi Ojeleye both signed their letter of intent to play for Duke University next season. Ojeleye verbally committed to Duke this past September while Matt Jones voiced his intentions last November. However, it is not official until they sign the paper and that precisely what they did yesterday during the early signing period.
The last target left in the class of 2013 for Duke, Jabari Parker, has stated that he will announce his decision sometime during the month of December. Parker still intends to take his last two visits to Stanford and BYU but, plans to start the evaluation process afterwards.
I am very confident with Duke’s position in Parker’s recruitment. Personally, I would not trade places with any other team and am cautiously confident we will land this highly regarded small forward out of Chicago. However, recruiting is fluid so I am interested to see how his visits to BYU and Stanford go.
Another top recruit, Karl Towns Jr., has announced that on December 4th, he will be making his college decision. If you remember, he was one of the five recruits that made the trip to Durham for Duke’s Countdown to Craziness. With that being said, I am not as confident with Towns as I am with Parker. I feel that he is Kentucky’s to lose at this point.
Honestly speaking, I think playing for Coach John Calipari on the Dominican Republic national team was huge. Towns got to see what it was like playing for Coach Calipari, developed a good relationship with him, and got a preview of how he would be used at Kentucky. An advantage no other coach in the nation got. I do, however, get the feeling that Duke is in his top three, so we might have an outside chance. Keep an eye out for any news on December 4th.
Also, Grayson Allen, an athletic two guard out of Jacksonville, Florida, was on Duke’s campus this past weekend. Though there is definitely mutual interest, it is hard to say where he is leaning because it is still early in his recruitment. Other schools he visited include North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina.
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Justin Bentaas is the contributing writer for DukeReport.com and can be found on other sites such as TheMarsReel.com and D1BasketballRecruiting.com. Justin's all-time favorite Duke player is none other than Jon Scheyer.
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