Slipping? They have the #1 ranked recruiting class right now, not UK. How is that slipping?
First of all, they aren’t finishing with the #1 ranked class. UK is either getting Cunningham or a reclassed askew and probably a few more. UNC will probably pass them too. Tennessee just picked up their 3rd 5 star.
And again, compare their current commitments to their last 4 or 5 classes. It’s not close. They’ve went from getting their top target at 3 or 4 positions to getting 1 of their top targets. Last cycle they whiffed on Stewart, James, Lewis, Antione, Baker, Anthony and Mannion. This cycle they’ve already lost Boston and Clarke to us, Kessler to UNC and aren’t even mentioned as a serious threat to land any of the remaining 5*s.
They went from getting 3 and 4 top 10-15 players for half a decade to 1 top 5, a fringe top 25 and 3 top 50’s. That’s a massive difference. It’s a very good class, but come on, it doesn’t compare to Barrett, Zion, Reddish, Jones(4 top 10 players and the top 3 players in the country). It doesn’t compare to Bagley, Carter, Duvall, Trent Jr(4 top 10 again). And it doesn’t compare to Tatum, bolden, Giles, Jackson(4 top 15). Even the class before that had kennard, Ingram and the point guard that transferred who was also a top 15 player.
This is easily duke’s worst class since the Jabari Parker class.
I would be more willing to consider the possibility that they’re just trying to prepare for life after one and done if not for the fact they’ve still offered a bunch of likely one and dones and just not been able to land them all of a sudden. It’s almost like a certain shoe company that’s been doing them favors has decided to lay low in the wake of a major scandal being exposed.