Duke's Class Sinfully Good

Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this one. It would take one crafty Devil to pull off three Top 25 commitments in three days but Duke did it.

The Duke Blue Devils served notice to the entire country this week: Top 25 recruits beware, Mike Krzyzewski is starting to collect stud prospects again and he’s a demon on the recruiting trail.

On Tuesday, Scout.com’s No. 24 prospect, Jon Scheyer of Glenbrook North picked the Blue Devils. Scheyer attends the same high school Duke assistant Chris Collins once laced them up for.

One day later, Gerald Henderson, Scout.com’s 19th ranked recruit in 2006, committed to the Blue Devils. Credit a relationship between Johnny Dawkins and Gerald Henderson, Sr., as one of the reasons why “G” made a pact with the Devils instead of the Wildcats.

Completing the hat trick on Thursday, Brian Zoubek will announce for guess who? That’s right, the No. 17 prospect in America, a 7-foot-1 center, also sold his soul to the Devils in Durham. Sorry Stanford and Wake Forest; Zoubek just couldn’t resist, peer pressure can be downright devilish.

Three days, three commitments, three Top 25 players. Most programs would sign contracts with the devil if they could be guaranteed that many top players in back to back classes. Duke did it in three days and by the way, the additions scream of meticulous planning.

“It’s totally coincidental,” one source close to the Duke program said. “It’s bizarre how it happened, one followed the other.”

Bizarre? That’s one way to put it. Unprecedented? We’d buy that one too. Totally unplanned? Well, maybe, but wouldn’t it be fun to hook up some wires and ask a legend of college basketball a few pointed questions?

Myles Brand, can’t you waive the rule about commenting about recruits before they sign just this one time? Would that be such a sin? We’re dying to find out what in Hades Coach Krzyzewski has to say about this latest haul.

Oh by the way, did you not notice that in 2005 Duke signed the No. 1 player in the America, the top point guard and a handful of guys sprinkled throughout the Top 100 that are more than willing to run through a wall for Coach K?

Come on, everyone knew Duke had England on lockdown with the additions of Luol Deng and Eric Boateng, but then it branched out into Lithuania, swept through Chicago, invaded Philly and crossed the Delaware into Jersey to solidify what again will be one of the elite recruiting classes in America.

It’s important to continually point out that Duke’s class of 2006, no matter where it winds up being ranked, comes on the heels of the best recruiting haul in 2005. Dare we say it’s sinfully good?