Duke Recruiting: VJ Edgecombe Sets Visits

Duke target VJ Edgecombe (2024), a 6-4 guard out of Long Island Lutheran, cut his list to ten recently and has now set his visit schedule.

• September 16th - Florida
• October 7th - Baylor
• October 14th - Michigan
• October 21st - Duke
• November 4th - Alabama
• November 11th - FSU
• St. John’s- not set
• UConn - not set
• Miami - not set
• G- League - this is a bit different because it obviously isn’t regulated by the NCAA and he can visit whenever he wants...but we’re not sure what that entails. Would he visit a franchise? Would he enter the G-League draft?

So it’s not exactly a visit, or at least not the same way that a college visit is organized.

However, with NIL, the G-League may not be as compelling: the average salary is something like $40,000, but at a major school like Duke, a player could make considerably more.

Leaving the G-League aside, he’s got a pretty good list. Florida’s Todd Golden is unproven and Michigan’s Juwan Howard has been, let’s say, erratic. If we were a parent we might have qualms about Alabama after the dreadful way Nate Oats responded to the murder of Jamea Harris after one of his players was charged.

Otherwise though it’s a solid list with guys like Baylor’s Scott Drew, Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton, St. John’s Rick Pitino, UConn’s Dan Hurley, Miami’s Jim Larranaga and of course Duke’s Jon Scheyer. Pitino, Hamilton and Larranaga are all getting on now, and Hamilton in particular has struggled lately.

Duke has an interesting history with Long Island Lutheran. Among the players who have emerged from that celebrated program: Drew Nicholas, who went to Maryland, Bill Chamberlain and Vasco Evtimov, who went to UNC, and, perhaps most memorably, Wayne McKoy.

McKoy, who had a sensational high school career, stayed home to attend St. John’s. In the 1978-79 season, Duke had two painful losses to St. John’s, first in the Garden in December. The Blue Devils surrendered big leads on back-to-back nights, first to Ohio State and Herb Williams, then to McKoy’s St. John’s team. And in March, in Reynolds Coliseum, Duke again lost to St. John’s in the NCAA tournament. UNC also lost in Reynolds that Sunday, to Penn, and ACC fans quickly dubbed the whole fiasco Black Sunday