A few notes on Duke's incoming frosh, Chante' Black, Laura Kurz and
Wanisha Smith. First off, all three made it to the prestigious Parade All-American team. Wanisha was on the first team,
Chante' on the third team, and Laura on the fourth team. Congratulations
to all three! While they may not have the name recognition of Candace
Parker, Duke fans will be very pleasantly surprised at how much they will
be able to contribute next year. Kurz was state player of the year in class AA after averaging 23 points
and 10 rebounds per game. She's the top scorer in the history of
Germantown Academy, male or female (which includes Duke's own Lee
Melchionni). Black and Smith were named Gatorade Players of the Year for
North Carolina & Maryland, respectively. Smith had a lot of very tough
competition for that slot; Maryland is a particularly fertile recruiting
area. Kurz was beat out for the honor by Laura Harper, who will be
attending the University of Maryland, a program that is truly on the rise.
Smith was not surprising named the Metro player of the year by the Washington Post. Note
that future Duke player Brittany Mitch was named to the fourth team, and
Duke targets Marissa Coleman (right above Smith in the photo) and Katrina
Wheeler (next to her) were on the first team as well. Smith averaged an
eye-popping 21 ppg, 6.5 apg, 4.5 rpg and 4 spg for a team that won the
National Christian High School Tournament. Black averaged 20 ppg and 16
rpg for a team that went deep into the NC playoffs.
All three Duke recruits have been competing in assorted all-star games.
Both Smith and Black were in the McDonald's game; I'll have more on their performances in
that game in a future article. The future teammates also participated in
the WBCA game, the longest-running event of its kind for high
school girls. Laura Kurz played in the inaugural
adidas game, and did quite well, scoring 11 points.