Even with Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement, the Duke Blue Devils continue to dominate the men’s college basketball recruiting landscape. In his first recruiting class as head coach, Jon Scheyer’s class of 2022 was the top-ranked in the nation; his class of 2023 was second only to Kentucky in terms of national ranking.
With Cooper Flagg’s commitment, Duke has gained its future superstar. Flagg is widely regarded as the best player in the class of 2024. Regardless of class, Flagg is regarded as the best high school basketball prospect and is the clear favourite to be chosen with the first selection in the 2025 NBA Draught.
Flagg instantly becomes one of Duke’s greatest recruits of the modern age, but where does he rank? We made the decision to rank Duke’s top recruits in the one-and-done era—which began with the 2006 NBA Draft—because a new freshman star is expected to emerge soon.
In addition to taking into account the Recruiting Services Consensus Index (RSCI), these rankings will also take into account the player’s initial buzz while attending Duke. Honourable mentions include Kyle Singler, Tyus Jones, Trevon Duval, and Vernon Carey
15. Dereck Lively, 2022
14. Dariq Whitehead, 2022
In his final season as coach, Coach K guided Duke to the Final Four in 2022, but Scheyer, the program’s coach-in-waiting, had the responsibility of preserving the nation’s best recruiting class. With Whitehead and Lively sitting 1-2 in the RSCI, Scheyer easily secured a spot for himself and three other players in the top four of the class. Regrettably, the preseason injuries sustained by both players destroyed their hype and detracted from their performance. Lively never had the opportunity to increase his offensive role because of a calf injury he sustained in early October. The 7’1 big man played well on defence in Duke’s lone NCAA tournament victory over Oral Roberts, despite his meagre 5.2 point per game average. After suffering a foot injury, Whitehead had to fight back, and never looked like the explosive on-ball engine he was supposed to be. The 6’5 guard would remake his game as a shooter, and still became a first round draft pick after the season.
I reported about the intense recruiting competition between North Carolina and Duke for Ingram back in 2015. Because of a number of factors, including Ingram’s meteoric rise up the national rankings as a senior, his close friendship with UNC legend Jerry Stackhouse (the two hail from Kinston, North Carolina), the shadow cast by the Tar Heels’ academic fraud scandal, and Duke’s thrilling run to the 2015 national championship behind four outstanding freshmen, the recruiting of Ingram was especially intriguing. After deciding on Duke, Ingram led a Sweet 16 team and was selected second overall in the NBA Draught, behind Ben Simmons. Beating UNC for a standout recruit usually makes me feel really good about Duke.
13. Brandon Ingram, 2015
As I detailed in a 2017 story, Reddish had the appearance of someone who had been manufactured in a lab to be the NBA’s ideal modern wing. His dedication to the Blue Devils created one of the best recruiting classes in the sport’s recent history: After Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett announced their own commitments to Duke, Coach K found himself with yet another elite group. Williamson became the most dominant player in the nation and a force to be reckoned with, but Reddish found it difficult to fit in with two other excellent scorers. Throughout the season, he only made 35.6 percent of his field goals. Despite this, Reddish’s physical profile made him a lottery pick; still, he has played for five different teams
Giles, a lanky big man from North Carolina who was compared to Chris Webber, was once regarded as the best high school player in America. Sadly, injuries derailed his progress. In one horrific play, Giles tore his meniscus, ACL, and MCL. The day before he committed to Duke, he also suffered another ACL injury. After receiving a scope for his knee just before the start of his freshman year, Giles played in 26 games for the Blue Devils, averaging less than four points per contest. He is among the best “what if” recruits in the game’s recent history.
12. Cam Reddish, 2018
To completely reverse Duke’s recruiting priorities and reinforce Coach K’s one-and-done devotion, Rivers trailed Kyrie Irving by a year. The 6’5 guard had a lot of hype coming out of Florida’s Winter Park High School for a few reasons: he was regarded as the consensus No. 2 player in his high school class, only behind Anthony Davis, and he had great bloodlines as the son of legendary head coach Doc Rivers. He also had one of the first mixtapes on YouTube that went viral. As a freshman, Rivers led Duke in scoring and created one of the most iconic moments in the rivalry’s history between North Carolina and Duke basketball by hitting a real buzzer-beater in a game in February. Later, C.J. would defeat his Duke team. McCollum and No. 15 seed Lehigh in their first NCAA tournament game, tainting a solid-but-unspectacular freshman year.
Irving, along with Harrison Barnes and Jared Sullinger, was a unanimous top-three recruit in the class of 2010 after graduating from St. Patrick High School in New Jersey. Nine games into the season, he suffered a toe ligament damage that ended his freshman season. Irving made a comeback shortly before the NCAA tournament, and he scored 28 points against Arizona in Duke’s Sweet 16 defeat. Although Kyrie’s time in college was brief, his brilliant play and subsequent selection as the first overall pick in the draught helped Duke, a programme that had previously valued one-and-done players above the seasoned players who had long defined Krzyzewski’s teams, change its ways.
11. Harry Giles, 2016
spite the Covid pandemic interrupting Banchero’s high school career, he still managed to place among the top three recruits in his class, along with Chet Holmgren and Jaden Hardy. He resembled all the one-and-done stars who came before him at Duke in a certain sense. At 6’10 and 250 pounds, Banchero was a huge scoring forward who could outmuscle lesser opponents in the paint and make some incredible live dribble passes. His rookie campaign took off like a rocket during the NCAA tournament, where he led Duke to the championship game and cemented his place as the top draught choice. He will always be known as Coach K’s last standout player before retirement.
Bagley changed his class and committed to Duke in August in an effort to provide the Blue Devils with a huge late-season skill boost. On a squad captained by senior guard Grayson Allen, the 6’10 forward teamed with five-star centre Wendell Carter Jr. to form an all-freshman front court. From the start, Bagley was a pure beast, averaging 20.1 points and 11 rebounds on 61.4 percent shooting from the field. Ultimately, Kansas would win an Elite Eight overtime classic, ending Duke’s season. Though Bagley’s primary NBA memory will be as the player selected by Sacramento one pick ahead of Luka Doncic, he was also one of Duke’s most successful freshman in history.
Only a few months after the 2016 recruiting class had completed their sophomore year of high school, I was pumping them up. After winning three goal medals with USA Basketball’s youth teams and emerging as one of the first stars in Nike’s revamped EYBL grassroots circuit, Jayson Tatum, a native of St. Louis, was a constant at the top of the class rankings from the beginning. The 6’8 wing made an immediate impact as a rookie for Duke, combining with sophomore Luke Kennard to create a formidable 1-2 scoring duo. Tatum’s star kept rising even after South Carolina upset Duke in the tournament’s second round. Tatum would eventually become one of the best players in the NBA and a future Hall of Famer, even while his five-star peers subsequently faded of Fame inductee with the Boston Celtics. Very few highly-touted recruits from the American shoe company grassroots system have ever lived up to the hype quite like Tatum.
10. Austin Rivers, 2011
“The best high school basketball player since LeBron James” was how Sports Illustrated described Jabari Parker on the cover at the beginning of his junior year. Parker, a 6’8, 230-pound forward at Chicago’s Simeon Academy, followed in Derrick Rose’s footsteps and had an advanced three-level scoring arsenal by the time he arrived on campus. In the Champion’s Classic, he defeated Andrew Wiggins, the recruit who beat him out for the top spot in the class, and went on to enjoy a First-Team All-American year. He was a real one-and-done superstar at Duke. One of the most unforgettable NCAA tournament losses in Duke history would mark Parker’s college career: a first-round loss to the No. 15-seeded Mercer dancing Bears. And He would go on to become the No. 2 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft (one spot ahead of Joel Embiid), and was supposed to be Giannis Antetokounmpo’s co-star of the future. Unfortunately, two ACL tears in his left knee grounded his NBA career before it took off.
Barrett and Williamson’s commitments helped Duke assemble what is perhaps the best recruiting class in the sport’s recent history. Barrett was widely regarded as the world’s top recruit. Williamson became a viral phenomenon thanks to his massive physique and explosive dunking abilities. Even before you mentioned Tre Jones, another five-star recruit, and Joey Baker, a four-star recruit, Duke had three of the top four prospects in the class of 2018. Add in Cam Reddish.
9. Kyrie Irving, 2010
Even though Barrett was regarded as the top player in the group, Williamson was the true standout after just one preseason trip to Canada. Zion was an absolute force to be reckoned with. He won the Wooden Award as a freshman and established himself as the finest player in college basketball right away. Williamson’s every move, from his spectacular dunks to his amazing blocks to the moment his shoe blew in the middle of the game, was must-see television. Barrett’s excitement was waning while Williamson’s was rising. Even while Duke continued to win, Barrett’s outside shooting percentage (30.8 percent from three) and sense of the game appeared unsteady when playing off Zion. After losing to Michigan State in the Elite Eight, Duke’s season will end disappointingly when the team went away from Williamson down the stretch. Failing to make the Final Four with that team endures as Coach K’s biggest failure.
Flagg, who projects as a top player on both sides of the court, is currently the best high school basketball prospect in the whole NBA. The native of Maine seems to have everything a future star should have. At 6’9”, he has the perfect frame for an NBA forward with long arms and a sturdy build. He has a tonne of game-changing, above-the-rim plays that showcase his amazing run-and-jump agility on tape, both offensively and defensively. Flagg is among the top defensive prospects to come through the basketball pipeline in recent memory. He is an excellent help defender who always appears to read the game ahead of everyone else, a formidable secondary rim protector, and a solid wing stopper. Flagg has advanced significantly
offensively over the last year, especially as an on-ball creator who can attack the basket with straight line drives. Already a great passer and capable shooter, Flagg can both fit into a structure on offense or act as the star. He already feels like a lock to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and he’s going to be the biggest one-and-done star in college basketball since Williamson.
I saw Jahlil Okafor early in his senior year at Whitney Young High School, and I wrote that he had “the body of a giant and the game of a dinosaur.” This occurred in the autumn of 2013, years before the MVP run of Stephen Curry and the first championship won by the Golden State Warriors permanently changed the landscape of contemporary basketball. At the greatest levels of the game, even at the time, the days of offence flowing through a low-post scoring big man were fast coming to an end. Even though Okafor never realised his full potential as a professional, his reputation as the gold player was cemented by his remarkable performance as a recruit and his ability to lead Duke to a 2015 national title.
With a wingspan of 7’5 and a weight of 270 pounds, Okafor was tall enough and strong enough to take up deep post position against any opponent. There was no stopping him once he grabbed the ball because of his amazing footwork, delicate touch, and ability to finish with either hand. With Okafor in the centre, Duke’s defence struggled during the regular season. However, the Blue Devils’ more explosive two-way team was created when Justise Winslow moved to the four. Though Winslow served as a shutdown wing stopper and supplementary scorer, Grayson Allen’s Final Four breakout, Tyus Jones setting him up and making key shots, and Okafor himself weren’t the only players that helped Duke win an interior scorer made everyone else’s success possible. Okafor entered college as the consensus No. 1 recruit from ESPN, Rivals, and Scout. He left a year later as the preeminent example of what recruiting at the top of the rankings can do for you. Whenever a college program lands the top-ranked recruit in the country, the best they can hope for is what Okafor did for Duke. Even as the Blue Devils have landed top recruit after top recruit in the years since, they’re still chasing the highs Okafor led them to nearly a decade ago.
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