Duke Recruiting: More On Paolo Banchero

Like just about everybody else, we were surprised when Paolo Banchero committed. We had pretty much written him off for Duke. The rumors about Banchero and recent Tennessee commit Kennedy Chandler going as a package deal seemed to have some credence, if only because it was repeated so often.

To an extent we’re catching up on things with him because we really didn’t expect him to pick Duke and certainly not right now.

So we looked up a few old articles and a couple of new ones to kind of get up to speed and we thought we’d link them for anyone else who could use a bit of catching up on Duke’s surprising August commitment.

You’ll know some of this stuff but here it is anyway:

• Both of his parents were Washington athletes. His dad played football and his mom was the all-time scorer in basketball for some time.
• His uncle also played football for Washington
• He is, or at least was (not sure about his current status) a quarterback with his coach raving about his intelligence. His team won a state championship.
• At 15 months, he was already three feet tall.
• For those who were wondering if this might discourage Patrick Baldwin, Banchero says he’s recruiting him hard to join him at Duke.
• He became an Italian citizen this February.

• Class of 2021 dual-sport ATH Paolo Banchero is one of the Emerald City’s brightest gems
• Duke, Kentucky and UNC are recruiting Paolo Banchero, but family ties to Washington make his choice tough
• O’Dea basketball star Paolo Banchero commits to Duke over UW
• What’s next for Kentucky recruiting after Banchero’s surprising commitment to Duke?
• Duke basketball secures top-ranked power forward recruit