Prediction Disappears in Duke Basketball's Transfer Pursuit

It's tough for Duke basketball fans to complain about anything this offseason. After all, via the recruiting trail and the return of the program's top four scorers from last season and four other scholarship players, the Blue Devils enjoy a roster strong enough to make them next season's widely projected No. 1 team in the nation.

Add in the fact Duke was the only high-major program that didn't lose a single talent to the transfer portal this go-round.

But in terms of landing their one missing piece from the transfer portal — a capable rim-protector and rim-runner to help replace NBA-bound Dereck Lively II — head coach Jon Scheyer and his staff haven't struck gold thus far. Two previous potential big-man targets, Kadin Shedrick and Aziz Bandaogo, have committed elsewhere.

And there's now a sign that this misfortune might continue, as one of the three 247Sports Crystal Ball picks favoring Duke to snag former Kansas center Ernest Udeh Jr. vanished on Monday morning.

The prediction, which came from The Devils Den's John Watson on Thursday and seemed to spark the two other expert picks that followed a few hours later, has been changed to "undecided" status.

Sure, at the time of this article's publishing, the remaining two picks still show the Blue Devils as the team to beat. Again, though, those picks popped up on Thursday; at that point, Udeh was one day removed from his Duke basketball visit, and many figured the 6-foot-11, 250-pound bruiser would soon announce his decision to play for Scheyer.

So now, while not yet ruling out the Blue Devils as a possible destination, one might conclude that Ernest Udeh Jr. will take more visits after the recruiting dead period ends on Friday and go from there. Before his trip to Durham, Cerebro Sports' Andrew Slater reported that Kansas State and TCU would likely get a chance to impress him.

Hearing there might be a window of opportunity for them to get back in with Ernest Udeh. https://t.co/kKF2jCF5Ph
— Trilly Donovan (@trillydonovan) May 22, 2023

Udeh, a 2022 McDonald's All-American now with three years of eligibility remaining, averaged only 2.6 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks for the Jayhawks. However, it's worth noting that he played in 30 games, albeit with limited minutes, and totaled four blocks across 13 minutes of action in Kansas' win over Duke in November.

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