The race for Jabari Parker—the No. 2 overall player in the class of 2013, according to ESPN.com—is coming down to the wire, with Duke seemingly surging late.
Parker was in Durham October 27 and 28 for his official visit. Last Thursday, the Blue Devil fan base received some optimistic news regarding Parker's recruitment when Michael O'Brien—the Chicago Sun-Times prep sports editor—tweeted, "Hearing Jabari Parker's visit to Duke went very, very well. Make Duke the clear leader right now. Parker heads to Florida tomorrow."
O'Brien is considered to be a trustable source with a fairly good pulse on Parker's recruitment. That being said, the fluid nature of recruiting still makes many wary about the news. Plus, there is plenty of time for things to change in the 6-foot-8 small forward's recruitment as he will not announce a college decision until December or January.
Parker was in Gainesville over the weekend on an official visit to Florida. The skilled 6-foot-8 small forward will take official visits to Stanford and BYU this weekend and next weekend, respectively.
After visiting Duke a few weeks ago for Countdown to Craziness, Tyus Jones—who recently became the No. 1 overall player in the class of 2014, according to ESPN.com—announced his list of eight colleges via his twitter account Saturday night.
Over the course of the next year, Baylor, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State and North Carolina will compete against one another to land the 6-foot-1 floor general from Minnesota.
The Blue Devils are considered to be among the favorites, if not the frontrunner, in the race to land Jones, who could very well end up committing to the same school as his friend and fellow Duke target Jahlil Okafor—the No. 2 overall player in the class of 2014 according to ESPN.com.
While Jones' decision is still likely a year away, 2013 Duke target Austin Nichols is expected to announce his college decision any day.
UPDATE (11:49 a.m.): Nichols announced this morning via his Twitter account that he will attend Memphis.
The Blue Devils were rumored to be sitting in third place behind Memphis and Tennessee as Nichols' recruitment came to a close.
In other recruiting news around the Triangle: The Tar Heels' future frontcourt may get significantly bigger soon. Kennedy Meeks—the No. 1 center and No.19 overall player in the class of 2013, per ESPN—will likely make his college announcement soon. The big-bodied, 6-foot-9 space eater is down to two schools—North Carolina and Georgetown. Being from nearby Charlotte, N.C., Meeks is likely to end up wearing powder blue next year.
The Tar Heels currently have two commitments in the class of 2013—power forward Isaiah Hicks and point guard Nate Britt.
N.C. State, Duke's other Triangle rival, is the heavy favorite to win over BeeJay Anya—the No. 2 center and No.31 overall player in the class of 2013, according to ESPN. Anya—a powerful 6-foot-9 big man with a freakish wingspan—was reportedly down to just Indiana and N.C. State a couple weeks ago. The Hoosiers, however, withdrew from the race to concentrate on five-star 2013 forward Noah Vonleh, who recently reclassified from 2014 to 2013. In light of the news, N.C. State is expected to add Anya to its 2013 recruiting class, which already has Anthony "Cat" Barber—the third-ranked point guard overall, per ESPN—and four-star power forward Kyle Washington.
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