“I’ve got another one for you.”
When Duke head coach Jon Scheyer hears those words from Glenn Farello, he takes them seriously. This is a line high school basketball coaches say a lot, but from the head coach of St. Paul VI’s (PVI), it reflects a deep trust in an emerging pipeline between the prep school and the Duke Brotherhood.
In current Duke freshman Darren Harris’ first year of high school, Farello delivered that line to then-assistant coach Scheyer. Now, Harris and fellow freshman Patrick Ngongba II carry on a tradition in Durham that they shared throughout high school and AAU ball.
“That duo … I thought that they complemented each other very well on the floor, but personality wise, I think they’re just good kids, man. I mean, they’re great teammates,” Farello told The Chronicle.
“Sometimes you forget how close we are. We’ll randomly be like, it’s crazy how we’re both here … He’s like a brother to me,” Harris said about Ngongba.
It is not unusual for college programs to recruit routinely well in one area of the nation, drawing on geographic proximity or coaching relationships to attract top regional talent to their school. But four players in the last five years all attending Duke from one school? That’s a different level.
Located in Chantilly, Va., PVI is one of the premier basketball high schools in the country. Over the last 20 years, it has been a constant presence on the national scene, with the 2023-24 team finishing the season ranked No. 1 in the country, according to MaxPreps.
When a program can achieve a sustained level of success like that, coaches are bound to take notice, and that was no different for Duke’s legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski. He and Scheyer came to Chantilly to visit a youngster by the name of Jeremy Roach, with the future star Blue Devil point guard unknowingly setting off a recruiting stretch that has allowed PVI to feed talent down to Durham ever since.
Before this connection was established, Roach’s recruitment was handled just like any other top prospect, fielding visits from coaches around the nation and hearing the pitch of countless top programs.
“Coach Scheyer and Coach K recruited Jeremy, and obviously did a great job of building that relationship and connection with him and so he made a decision to go,” Farello said.
Some kids grow up as fans of the Blue Devils and dream of taking the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It just so happened that PVI had one of these dreamers in its program, a year behind Roach. Trevor Keels’ coach made sure that he introduced him to Duke’s top staff.
“I think at some point you’re gonna want to recruit him,’” Farello told Krzyzewski.
From there, Roach and Keels both went on to have successful careers at Duke, with the pair channeling their chemistry en route to the 2022 Final Four. Roach, now at Baylor, spent four years in Durham and was a two-time team captain, while Keels stuck around for one season before heading off to the NBA, where he was a second-round pick.
As Duke and PVI excelled on the court, great guards from the prep school continued to head down south to join the Blue Devils. Before long, Harris was up next in Chantilly, becoming the go-to guy for Farello and a top prospect in his own right. During his senior year, the shooting guard put up 17.2 points per game as he led PVI to a state championship and a spot at Chipotle Nationals, garnering Virginia MaxPreps Player of the Year honors along the way.
Harris wasn’t the only player on the elite squad who elected to head to Duke, as his counterpart down low in Ngongba also signed on with Scheyer for the upcoming season. However, the paths for the pair were quite different, as Ngongba did not join PVI until his junior year and had a much more open recruitment than his teammate.
Harris stayed in his teammate’s ear during his recruiting process, hoping to continue their connection at the college level. While Scheyer needs no help on the recruiting trail, Harris was able to provide an assist on this one.
“I remember when he first started to come into his own. Coach Scheyer hit me up and was like, ‘What do you think of him, how is he?’ And I said nothing but good things and it kind of took off from there,” Harris said.
When the dust settled, both capitalized on the connection between the two schools. Ngongba and Harris moved from Farello’s tutelage to Scheyer’s. Countless basketball prep schools have elite players year in and year out, but there’s something special, for Scheyer, about PVI.
Farello is intentional about the way he runs his program. He is not naive enough to think that his players only have PVI in their minds when it comes to their basketball careers. Instead of letting this bother him, he wants PVI to emulate a college program to the best of its ability.
The high school trots out lineups full of Division I-caliber players, with last year’s group also featuring commits to Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and UConn.
“You can’t ever simulate the speed and the physicality of 18- to 24-year-olds at the college level. But at the high school level, we play at such a pace that we try to help our guys,” Farello said. “So no matter what position, from a versatility standpoint, it’s always been something really important that we develop.”
But college athletics is not just about what happens on the court. Between classes, film sessions and new NIL-related activities, the grind does not stop for basketball players when they walk out of the gym. Farello is not oblivious to this, and this mental development is at the top of his mind as he works to mold his young players into future successful collegiate players.
“We do sessions on character and leadership. We do a lot of film study that really breaks things down. We introduce so many college concepts and show college clips to say, ‘This is what we’re trying to get you guys ready for.’” Farello said. “It’s important to me, when guys first get to PVI, we’re already talking about college, it’s a stepping stone.”
For Harris and Ngongba, the way Farello ran the show paralleled the way Scheyer and company handle business, as the pair remarked about the similarities between the two schools at the end of their respective recruiting processes.
“Duke just seems like the perfect place for me as a player and person. On the court, I think the fit is perfect, they have a great history of elite shooters and wing scorers. Off the court, it’s one of the best universities in the world,” Harris told 247Sports at the end of his recruitment.
“I chose Duke because it felt like home,” Ngongba told ESPN when he committed. “I like its plan for me, and I trust the coaches. It is a place where we can win and help me get to the next level.”
Harris and Ngongba hope to assist Duke to another deep tournament run, just like their two fellow PVI alumni did in 2022. As Farello develops his program to a consistent national powerhouse, there’s no reason why this partnership can’t continue going forward.
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