Duke Basketball Staff 'Shakes Up' Five-Star Recruiting Race

This month's Duke basketball offer spree, thus far resulting in five heralded preps between the 2024 and 2025 recruiting cycles landing on second-year head coach Jon Scheyer's wishlist, began on July 3 with Long Island Lutheran (N.Y.) shooting guard VJ Edgecombe.

Three weeks later, the interest between Scheyer and Edgecombe, No. 16 overall on the 247Sports 2024 Composite, sure appears mutual.

"It's coach Jon Scheyer, the head coach," Edgecombe recently told Rivals' Rob Cassidy about which Duke coach he talks to most. "I've gotten to know him pretty well already...I already feel like I know [associate head coach Chris Carrawell] pretty well, too."

Depending on how things play out in the home stretch of the Dylan Harper sweepstakes, Edgecombe may represent the best chance for the Blue Devils to add a five-star backcourt prize to a 2024 haul currently comprised of two sharpshooting small forwards in five-star Isaiah Evans and four-star Darren Harris.

Unlike most of his fellow rising high school seniors, Edgecombe, a 6-foot-5, 180-pound explosive bucket-getter and swarming perimeter defender, hasn't named finalists or even hinted at favorites by scheduling visits.

But according to Cassidy, the Duke basketball pursuit "shakes up" the race and may have motivated Edgecombe to advance his recruitment to the next stage:

"VJ Edgecombe has never been in much of a rush to choose a college. He's yet to take a single visit and has always said he intends to take things as slowly as possible when it comes to his impending decision. But even he won't deny that a recent offer from Duke made waves."

And it sounds like plans for a trip to Durham are in the works.

"I haven't scheduled it yet," Edgecombe noted to Cassidy, "but they are talking to me about scheduling a time. They want to get me out there and show me around. That's pretty much it. Right now, they just want to get me out there...

"They like that I play hard and that I'm all over the floor and how I play defense. They say I fit in because I play as hard as they do."

VJ Edgecombe highlights at the NBA Top 100 Camp! @vj_edgecombe pic.twitter.com/mwwZhdt98q
— Courtside Films (@CourtsideFilms) July 10, 2023

The second 2024 recruit to receive an offer from Scheyer this month, five-star small forward Kon Knueppel, is the only Duke basketball target who has revealed locked-in dates for an official visit with the Blue Devils this fall.

Meanwhile, there are no 247Sports Crystal Ball or Rivals FutureCast predictions for VJ Edgecombe. He boasts almost two dozen offers and may be the type to refrain from genuinely tipping his hand regarding possible frontrunners or a timeline for his decision.

Even so, after talking to Edgecombe, Cassidy listed Duke, Miami, Mississippi State, Ohio State, and Villanova as some of the programs seemingly "in the thick of the hunt" for his services the season after next.

Perhaps this weekend's Jayson Tatum Elite Camp will strengthen Scheyer's chances at least a smidge.

After all, VJ Edgecombe is one of a few Duke offer holders there, alongside Evans and two current Blue Devils in freshman guard Caleb Foster and sophomore forward Mark Mitchell. And the camp's "counselors" include Tatum and another former Duke basketball one-and-done in the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year, Paolo Banchero.

Stay tuned to Blue Devil Country on SI.com for more Duke basketball recruiting news.