Duke Recruiting: More On Darren Harris

Darren Harris committed to Duke Saturday afternoon, giving Jon Scheyer and his staff their first commitment from the 2024 class.

So what does he tell us about Scheyer’s direction and aims?

Well, he continues a two-year trend of recruiting superior shooters: Dariq Whitehead, Tyrese Proctor, Jaden Schutt, Jacob Grandison, Mark Mitchell, Kyle Filipowski, TJ Power, Mackenzie Mgbako, Tyrese Proctor, Jared McCain and Sean Stewart.

It’s a different emphasis than Mike Krzyzewski had. When Coach K got to Duke, he put an emphasis on athleticism that was pretty different - certainly for Duke but it changed the game too. Guys like Robert Brickey, Billy King, Johnny Dawkins, Tommy Amaker, Grant Hill, Antonio Lang and Thomas Hill were superb athletes, but not necessarily great shooters.

Coach K kind of built on what Denny Crum did at Louisville actually, and he extended what his old boss John Wooden did at UCLA.

Scheyer?

We could be way off here, but if you look at the players Scheyer is pursuing, most of them remind you a bit of Scheyer himself.

Scheyer’s targets, broadly speaking, are versatile, smart, and of course, they tend to shoot well.

But here's a key quote from Harris on his future coach: “[Scheyer] knows how well I can shoot the ball so he talked about all the shooting he’s had, like Grayson Allen, Luke Kennard, J.J. Redick and he compared me to them with my size and shooting ability. But at the same time he said we don’t only want you to be a shooter here, we want you to develop. I have two more years of high school and when I get there and I will develop, too, doing a lot of skillwork.”

We would take that as an indication that while shooting is a new emphasis, many other parts of Duke’s approach may stay the same.

There’s one more thing to keep in mind: Scheyer is getting his recruiting done early. Everyone is marveling at how well he’s doing it, but in order to successfully get that far ahead, he he needs two things: confidence and a keen analytical eye.

So don’t be surprised if Harris is more highly regarded by the time he gets to Duke.