Duke basketball: Another positive update in Xavier Booker sweepstakes

Are the Blue Devils inching toward a giant commitment?

Author:
Matt Giles
Jun 7, 2022 7:02 AM EDT

Last week, Cathedral High School (Ind.) center Xavier Booker picked up a Duke basketball recruiting offer, seemingly becoming the primary 2023 focus of first-year Blue Devil head coach Jon Scheyer and his gang.

ALSO READ: Blue Devils feel like the frontrunner for Xavier Booker

Then this week, On3 recruiting insider Jamie Shaw reported that Duke is among the schools Booker plans to check out with his next batch of official visits. According to Shaw, Notre Dame, Texas, and Ohio State are three others on that list, but there's no word on dates for any future trips.

As a junior, the 6-foot-11, 215-pound five-star took official visits to Indiana, Kansas State, Michigan State, and Purdue.

Booker, who recently soared from No. 78 to No. 4 overall on the 247Sports 2023 Rankings, has neither named finalists nor provided a timeline for choosing his destination after high school.

A brief scouting report on Duke basketball recruiting target Xavier Booker

At the Pangos All-American Camp in Las Vegas on Sunday, Fullcourt Press expert Dinos Trigonis noted that Xavier Booker faced fellow five-star 2023 center Baye Fall. The 17-year-old Booker — with a reported 7-foot-4 wingspan — tallied 28 points and nine rebounds while shooting 12-for-15 from the field and 4-for-4 from deep.

Jamie Shaw gave a glowing assessment of Booker from Sunday's action:

"Booker is very fluid in the way he moves, he is shifty in his hips and has vertical pop at the basket. This is why projecting him moving forward is so fascinating. [Guys his size] just do not and have not moved like he does."

Duke's 2023 haul consists of four five-star commits to date: point guard Caleb Foster, shooting guard Jared McCain, small forward Mackenzie Mgbako, and power forward Sean Stewart. It, along with the Blue Devils' incoming 2022 bunch, ranks No. 1 in the country, per 247Sports.

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