It was less than two weeks ago that Kentucky jumped Duke for the No. 1 spot in Scout’s Class of 2015 recruiting rankings.
That was thanks to the late addition of Australian 7-footer Isaac Humphries.
But Duke has it going on so far for the Class of 2016.
With the verbal pledge Tuesday of Utah point guard Frank Jackson, Duke is now No. 1 in Scout’s rankings. Along with Jackson, who looks like a prototypical Duke point guard, the Blue Devils have a pledge from small forward Jayson Tatum, the projected No. 2 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by DraftExpress.com.
Duke won the national championship in April over Wisconsin and then carried that momentum into the summer, landing Tatum and becoming the clubhouse favorite for 6-10 Harry Giles, the projected No. 1 pick in 2017.
The Devils are also in the mix for 6-10 big men Marcus Bolden and Wenyen Gabriel, both of whom will visit officially this fall.
Scout ranked UCLA No. 2, Florida State No. 3, UConn No. 4 and Virginia No. 5. UConn got a big boost on Tuesday when 6-10 power forward Juwan Durham committed. He joins a class that already includes point guard Alterique Gilbert and power forward Mamadou Diarra.
Kentucky is ranked No. 8 with a class that currently includes bigs Sacha Killeya-Jones and Tai Wynyard, who arrives in December.
But the Wildcats, as usual, are in the mix for a slew of 2016 studs, including Giles, Bolden, Gabriel, Rawle Alkins, Miles Bridges, Malik Monk, Kobi Simmons, De’Aaron Fox, Thon Maker and others.
Villanova is the highest-rated Big East team at No. 17 with incoming big man Omari Spellman. Xavier and Butler chimed in at Nos. 23 and 24.
