Duke’s 2020 recruiting class is filling up.
Four-star power forward Henry Coleman III announced his commitment to Duke Friday afternoon at Trinity Episcopal School in Richmond, Va. The No. 42-ranked recruit is the fourth piece to a class that already includes five-star recruits Jalen Johnson, Jeremy Roach and D.J. Steward.
Roach—who lives just a two-hour drive from Richmond—and Johnson communicated with Coleman before he committed, part of a growing trend of recruiting networks. As a player, Coleman boasts solid fundamental play, gritty physicality and a workable midrange game. Those traits made him Richmond’s All-Metro player of the year as a junior. More combo forward than pure power forward, the 6-foot-7 Coleman has the stuff of a key Blue Devil role player.
In an interview with USA Today this August, he revealed that head coach Mike Krzyzewski enticed him with a role like that of Matt Jones or Justise Winslow. Coleman’s other suitors—Michigan, Virginia Tech, Ohio State and N.C. State—offered him bigger pieces of the pie, but Coleman stuck with the program most likely to bring him a national championship.
If Coleman’s decision indicates anything about his priorities, Krzyzewski made the right decision offering Coleman a spot on the roster in Durham. However, the tallest player in the 2020 class so far is Johnson, at 6-foot-8, which may be cause for concern.
Duke still awaits decisions from five-star forward Ziaire Williams and four-star, 7-foot center Mark Williams.
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