As college recruiting changes, Duke and Kentucky still battling for nation’s top prospects

Change has become commonplace in the college basketball recruiting landscape in recent years.

From the prevalence of Name, Image and Likeness in recruiting discussions, to the importance of landing top freshman prospects with the NCAA transfer portal now in use, plenty can be said about the current value of traditional college basketball recruiting.

But for all the change that has come, a constant is the two schools that often dominate recruiting discussions.

Duke and Kentucky.

The blue-blood powers led by Jon Scheyer and John Calipari have been staples at the top of team recruiting rankings, and that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

Patrick Ngongba set to choose from final list that includes Duke, UK

Front and center in any current college basketball recruiting discourse is the impending commitment of class of 2024 five-star center Patrick Ngongba II.

On Saturday, Ngongba — who was measured at 6-foot-10 this month at a USA Basketball Junior National Team minicamp in Colorado — will announce his college commitment.

His list of finalists includes Duke, Kansas State and Kentucky.

“Just a place where I can develop and get ready for the next level and (that has) a family environment,” Ngongba told the Herald-Leader about his recruitment while at that USA Basketball camp.

Ngongba — who is ranked by the Recruiting Services Consensus Index (RSCI), which combines the rankings from the nation’s top recruiting services into one single metric, as the No. 24 overall player in the 2024 class — took an official visit to Kentucky in late September.

He’s taken two visits to each of Duke and Kansas State as well.

He was at the Blue Devils’ Countdown to Craziness event in October, and he was a star visitor this past weekend at Kansas State, which came shortly after the entire K-State coaching staff visited Ngongba at his high school in Virginia.

Rob Cassidy, a national prep basketball recruiting insider for Rivals, has logged a FutureCast prediction for Ngongba to commit to head coach Jerome Tang and Kansas State.

V.J. Edgecombe wraps up weekend visit to Kentucky

While Kentucky football has struggled on the field recently, a pleasant storyline for UK fans has come in the form of men’s basketball recruiting.

The Wildcats have hosted a slew of top prospects in the 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes over the past few weeks, and that theme continued last weekend when Jayden Quaintance (a class of 2024 center) and V.J. Edgecombe (a class of 2024 shooting guard) both took official visits to Lexington.

While Quaintance’s trip came as part of a limited recruiting battle for the big man (who isn’t eligible for the NBA Draft until 2026), Edgecombe’s was part of a late push from UK in his recruitment.

Edgecombe — who is ranked by the RSCI as the No. 6 overall player in the 2024 class — received a scholarship offer from Kentucky in September. This was after he released a list of his top 10 schools and professional pathways in late July that featured Alabama, Baylor, Connecticut, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, St. John’s and the NBA’s G-League Ignite.

Edgecombe reportedly canceled a scheduled visit to Michigan, and has already visited Baylor, Duke and Florida this fall.

He also still has visits scheduled for Alabama and Florida State.

Like Ngongba, Edgecombe was on hand for Duke’s Countdown to Craziness event in October.

UK has clearly crashed the planned course of action for Edgecombe’s recruitment.

And if the Wildcats were to go all the way and lure the five-star backcourt talent to Lexington, it would give UK a second elite guard out of New York state in the 2024 recruiting class, along with recent commit Boogie Fland.

Generational talent Cooper Flagg commits to Duke

Monday morning brought long awaited, and expected, news in the college basketball recruiting world.

Class of 2024 forward Cooper Flagg — viewed as a generational talent and the likely No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft — committed to Duke.

Flagg, who announced in August that he would be shifting from the 2025 to the 2024 recruiting class, is now the fourth member of Duke’s 2024 recruiting class, along with four-star prospect Darren Harris (a high school teammate of the aforementioned Ngongba) and five-star recruits Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans.

Flagg, who was also on hand for October’s Countdown to Craziness event at Duke, is the kind of surefire, one-and-done recruit that has become commonplace on Duke basketball rosters in recent years.

According to ESPN’s prospect rankings, Flagg would be the sixth top-ranked recruit to go to Duke since 2007.

The other five were Jahlil Okafor (2014), Harry Giles (2016), Marvin Bagley (2017), R.J. Barrett (2018) and Dereck Lively (2022).

Only one other program has had multiple top-ranked recruits since 2007, per ESPN: That’s Kentucky, with Anthony Davis in 2011 and Nerlens Noel in 2012.

Recruiting success expected in future for Duke, Kentucky

Landing the top basketball prospects in the nation is an expectation at Duke and Kentucky.

Since 2011, Duke and Kentucky have been mainstays at the top of the annual 247Sports team recruiting rankings.

In this span, UK finished with the top-ranked recruiting class on six occasions (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2020 and 2023).

“I’m going to recruit the best freshman player that I can get,” Calipari said at UK’s preseason media day. “We are going to help them do what we are supposed to do to prepare them to create habits, prepare them for the rest of their lives. We are going to bring them together, care about them, if we have to bring in some veteran guys, we’ve done it before.”

Duke has topped this list five times (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022).

The Blue Devils, unsurprisingly, currently lay claim to the top recruiting class for 2024 as well.

There’s also been recent crossover between the two programs: Duke associate head coach Jai Lucas was formerly on staff at UK and was a key part of the Wildcats’ recruiting efforts.

These rankings reflect the ability of schools to recruit elite prospects, and also reward the sheer number of freshmen brought in by a school in a given year.

Something with less room for interpretation is what a school does in the NCAA Tournament.

Since 2012, UK has amassed one national championship, two national championship game appearances, three trips to the Final Four, five trips to the Elite Eight and six trips to the Sweet 16.

Duke has recorded one national championship, two trips to the Final Four, five trips to the Elite Eight and six trips to the Sweet 16.

These results have fallen short of expectations in both Durham and Lexington, given the high level of recruiting success that each school has enjoyed.

As Kentucky’s head coach, Calipari battled Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski for top prospects for more than a decade.

It appears more of the same is to come between Calipari and Scheyer.

In October, the 36-year-old Scheyer agreed to a six-year contract extension that will take him through the 2028-29 season at Duke.

Calipari’s contract at UK also extends through the 2028-29 season, although whether he will see that contract through to its end is a frequent talking point.

At least in the short term, Calipari appears confident that he will maintain the high-standard of recruiting success that has become synonymous with his programs.

“Kentucky is Kentucky. We still like recruiting in the ‘24 class, really good. 2025 class may be better,” Calipari said.

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