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How Duke reclaimed its status as the top destination for elite recruits
The most exaggerated storyline from Duke's national title run this past spring was the notion that the Blue Devils' reliance on one-and-done freshmen represented some sort of seismic shift in recruiting philosophy.
In reality, Mike Krzyzewski has long pursued prospects of that caliber. The difference is Krzyzewski is now landing them in bunches.
A Duke program that once appeared to be falling behind both Kentucky and North Carolina in the hunt for elite talent suddenly is threatening to overtake both as college basketball's trendiest destination for top recruits.
In their past two recruiting classes, the Blue Devils have landed seven Rivals.com Top 25 prospects — Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Tyus Jones, Brandon Ingram, Chase Jeter, Derryck Thornton and Luke Kennard. Duke added to its haul Sunday when elite forward Jayson Tatum, Rivals.com's No. 3 prospect in the Class of 2016, chose the Blue Devils over fellow suitors North Carolina, Kentucky and Saint Louis.
The scary thing for Duke's opponents is how well the Blue Devils are positioned to extend that run for years to come. They are considered the favorite to land 6-foot-10 forward Harry Giles, a freakish athlete and close friend of Tatum's who is maybe the Class of 2016's premier prospect. They also are among the leading contenders to nab elite point guard Frank Jackson and a handful of coveted Class of 2017 prospects, most notably skilled 6-foot-10 big man Wendell Carter and AAU teammates Michael Porter and Trae Young.
The most talented player in the Class of 2018 is also already on Duke's radar. Krzyzewski and at least one Blue Devils assistant sat at mid-court this past week for many of forward Marvin Bagley's games at the Nike EYBL finals in North Augusta, S.C.
Duke's recent recruiting surge represents a clear upgrade over the period that preceded it.
While Krzyzewski won a national title with a collection of three- and four-year players in 2010 and seldom went a year without landing at least one McDonald's All-American, the Blue Devils' often were at a talent deficit when facing the country's best programs. Krzyzewski swung and missed on top targets uncharacteristically often, losing Greg Monroe to Georgetown in 2008, failing to pry John Wall away from John Calipari in 2009 and finishing second to North Carolina in a spirited battle for Harrison Barnes in 2010.
How did Duke reverse that trend and reclaim its status as college basketball's chic program? There are a handful of factors that have played a role
One is the way Krzyzewski has capitalized on his role with USA Basketball. The NBA's stars embracing and lauding Krzyzewski has only enhanced his image and made him more attractive to today's top prospects, as has the additional face time he has logged with high school players at the U-17, U-18 and U-19 levels.
Another factor is the academic fraud scandal that has ensnared North Carolina. The threat of looming NCAA sanctions and a potential postseason ban has crippled the Tar Heels' pursuit of Ingram, Tatum, Giles and other top prospects.
But maybe the biggest reason for Duke's success is Krzyzewski's 2011 hire of ex-Blue Devils guard Jeff Capel as associate head coach. The former Oklahoma and VCU coach has shown a remarkable knack for building relationships with prospective recruits, spearheading the Blue Devils' pursuit of Jabari Parker, Rodney Hood, Winslow, Okafor and Jones, among others.
The way in which Capel wooed Okafor and Jones was especially impressive because their pact to attend college together made for a very unusual recruitment. He communicated with them via conference calls and group texts and invited them to visit campus together yet he also made a point of pursuing them as individuals too.
With Jones, Capel pointed out Duke hadn't offered a scholarship to any other class of 2014 point guards and emphasized that he was a top priority whether Okafor came too or not. With Okafor, Capel was proactive in addressing Duke's reputation for running a guard-oriented offense that seldom prioritized playing through the low post.
"One of the scare tactics other programs use against us for bigs is they'll tell them, 'All you're going to do is screen and rebound,'" Capel told Yahoo Sports last March. "We knew Jah was hearing that, so we tried to combat it early. We told him, 'This is what you're going to hear. When we've had guys like you, we threw the ball to Mason Plumlee when he was a senior. When Elton Brand was here, he got the ball. The offense ran through him.' I think we got through to him and I also don't think it hurt us that we had Tyus helping us, talking in his ear."
The success of Okafor-Jones arrangement has given Duke a new angle to pitch to top recruits. Now the Blue Devils can encourage them to come to Durham with one or two other top prospects and chase a championship together the way Okafor and Jones did, a selling point that appeals to best friends Giles and Tatum as well as some of the Class of 2016 and 17's other elite players.
“You see something like that, two great players teaming up, it definitely influences you,” Tatum said Thursday. “They had one goal in mind, they accomplished it and they had a great time doing it. Who wouldn’t want to do that?”
The potential for Duke to finish with the nation's No. 1 recruiting class for a third straight year next spring certainly doesn't spell doom for any of college basketball's other top programs. Kentucky will continue to attract top players as long as John Calipari is its coach, Arizona and Kansas will keep landing McDonald's All-Americans year after year and North Carolina will be fine too once the extent of its NCAA sanctions become clear.
Nonetheless, none of those programs is signing virtually every elite player it targets. These days, the only program that can say that is Duke.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
