2024 Men's Basketball Recruiting

SkyBrickey said:
On the flip side, here's a scouting synopsis on the EYBL's leading scorer. Sounds to me like a guy who is going to do special things in a Duke uniform. A couple of highly-skilled players pop to mind who were doubted because of their lack of elite athleticism: Luka Doncic and Malcomb Brogdon. Basketball skills and IQ matter...

https://247sports.com/player/kon-knueppel-46115296/

Edit: Sorry, it's a year old but still worth a read if you haven't seen it...

"Kneuppel finished as the leading scorer in the EYBL regular season with almost 23 points per game. He’s not built like a prototypical wing scorer or playmaker as he has a naturally broader build without standout quickness or leaping ability, but what he may lack in natural athletic gifts, he compensates for with physical strength, competitiveness, a terrific mind for the game, and a skill-set that is as polished as it is versatile. Knueppel is an excellent shooter, who connected on almost 47% of his attempts from behind the arc in the spring, but he can also operate from various spots on the floor. He can bring the ball up, initiate offense and play-make. While he’s not blowing by many defenders, he’s an efficient handler who can drive both sides, drop his body to maintain balance through contact, and never gets sped-up. He’s also a threat to take smaller defenders into the post where he can utilize his strength to his advantage. What is constant, regardless of where he attacks, is his ability to dictate his own pace, read the defense, and be a heady passer if he draws secondary defenders or forces rotations. Defensively, there may be times where he can struggle to keep quicker wings in front of him in space, but he’s smart and competitive enough to be in all the right spots and show plenty of fight. He’s also physical switching onto bigger players in the post, and fronting them. Overall, Knueppel is one of the better offensive players in the class. He’s skilled, smart, efficient, productive, and able to create match-ups problems all over the floor. Long-term, his upside will be tied to his ability to hold his own on the defensive end of the floor as the game gets quicker and more athletic."
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K2 sounds a little like our own Luke Kennard who as a sophomore was an outstanding player. He got the minutes even though he wasn't a good defender.

GoDuke!
 
SkyBrickey said:
On the flip side, here's a scouting synopsis on the EYBL's leading scorer. Sounds to me like a guy who is going to do special things in a Duke uniform. A couple of highly-skilled players pop to mind who were doubted because of their lack of elite athleticism: Luka Doncic and Malcomb Brogdon. Basketball skills and IQ matter...

https://247sports.com/player/kon-knueppel-46115296/

Edit: Sorry, it's a year old but still worth a read if you haven't seen it...

"Kneuppel finished as the leading scorer in the EYBL regular season with almost 23 points per game. He’s not built like a prototypical wing scorer or playmaker as he has a naturally broader build without standout quickness or leaping ability, but what he may lack in natural athletic gifts, he compensates for with physical strength, competitiveness, a terrific mind for the game, and a skill-set that is as polished as it is versatile. Knueppel is an excellent shooter, who connected on almost 47% of his attempts from behind the arc in the spring, but he can also operate from various spots on the floor. He can bring the ball up, initiate offense and play-make. While he’s not blowing by many defenders, he’s an efficient handler who can drive both sides, drop his body to maintain balance through contact, and never gets sped-up. He’s also a threat to take smaller defenders into the post where he can utilize his strength to his advantage. What is constant, regardless of where he attacks, is his ability to dictate his own pace, read the defense, and be a heady passer if he draws secondary defenders or forces rotations. Defensively, there may be times where he can struggle to keep quicker wings in front of him in space, but he’s smart and competitive enough to be in all the right spots and show plenty of fight. He’s also physical switching onto bigger players in the post, and fronting them. Overall, Knueppel is one of the better offensive players in the class. He’s skilled, smart, efficient, productive, and able to create match-ups problems all over the floor. Long-term, his upside will be tied to his ability to hold his own on the defensive end of the floor as the game gets quicker and more athletic."
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This could be a description of a young Luka Doncic. Also not the quickest guy, and should be a liability on defense, but just so tough and canny that he holds his own.

I think it's worth keeping in mind that unlike this past season, when he would have been asked to flat out stop his man, he'll likely just be asked to funnel him to Maluach. It's an entirely different ask.
 
fgb said:
I think it's worth keeping in mind that unlike this past season, when he would have been asked to flat out stop his man, he'll likely just be asked to funnel him to Maluach. It's an entirely different ask.
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No. As nice as it is to have a shotblocker behind the defense, it's not a good thing to funnel drivers into Maluach. Because that then frees up Maluach's man for an easy layup/dunk.

Having Maluach back there might be a reasonably good last resort. But it is not ever going to be plan A for the defense.
 
K Academy starts today. Curious to see which incoming freshmen and/or transfers are there. I believe this has turned into a nice NIL opportunity (it was created as a fundraiser for the Emily K Center but now I assume the proceeds are split) in addition to a major team bonding event and a chance to meet the many basketball alums who usually attend.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
K Academy starts today. Curious to see which incoming freshmen and/or transfers are there.
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One of the freshmen will not be there, but he has a very good reason.

247 Sports/The Devils Den: Incoming Duke freshman Pat Ngongba selected for USA Basketball U18 National Team

The 2024 USA Basketball Men's U18 National Team includes Darius Acuff Jr., Nate Ament, Mikel Brown Jr., Jeremiah Fears, Shelton Henderson, Daniel Jacobsen, Jasper Johnson, Morez Johnson Jr., Nikolas Khamenia, Trey McKenney, Patrick Ngongba II and Derrion Reid.
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The subheading: "Ngongba will miss the K Academy festivities, which begin today". This Team USA will play June 3-9 in Buenos Aires, where the 2024 FIBA U18 Men's AmeriCup will take place. Nate Ament, a 2025 recruit with a Duke offer, also made the team.
 
brevity said:
One of the freshmen will not be there, but he has a very good reason.

247 Sports/The Devils Den: Incoming Duke freshman Pat Ngongba selected for USA Basketball U18 National Team



The subheading: "Ngongba will miss the K Academy festivities, which begin today". This Team USA will play June 3-9 in Buenos Aires, where the 2024 FIBA U18 Men's AmeriCup will take place. Nate Ament, a 2025 recruit with a Duke offer, also made the team.
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This is a really positive sign for those hoping Pat can make an impact as a freshman. Interesting that there aren't more "big names" on the roster, though... I guess the top top talent isn't interested? Because, obviously, Cooper is still U18...
 
Sounds like Ngongba is ready to play. So now we need to worry less about depth at the 5 and more about somewhat being unhappy about playing time?
 
scottdude8 said:
This is a really positive sign for those hoping Pat can make an impact as a freshman. Interesting that there aren't more "big names" on the roster, though... I guess the top top talent isn't interested? Because, obviously, Cooper is still U18...
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I covered some of this in the 2025 recruiting thread because 20 of the 28 players invited to try out were in that graduating class. 8 of the 20 made the team.

Patrick Ngongba was one of only 5 from the 2024 class, and 4 of them made the team. Weirdly, the highest rated of the group, Jayden Quaintance, was the one left out. (There were also 3 from the 2026 class, none of whom were selected.)

In checking the class ranking for Jayden Quaintance, I noticed that RSCI put up their final 2024 rankings yesterday. This is a composite of rankings from ESPN, Rivals, 247 Sports, and On3, in that order for the list of Duke freshmen below.

1. Cooper Flagg (1/1/1/1)
14. Kon Knueppel (18/9/17/17) -- tie
16. Isaiah Evans (14/13/13/25)
24. Pat Ngongba (25/28/19/35)
35. Darren Harris (29/38/37/43) -- tie
51. Khaman Maluach (-/-/4/9) -- tie

Other ACC freshmen:

6. Ian Jackson, UNC
7. Jalil Bethea, Miami
8. Donnie Freeman, Syracuse (tie)
11. Drake Powell, UNC (tie)
33. Khani Rooths, Louisville
47. Austin Swartz, Miami
53. Paul McNeil, NC State
57. Jaeden Mustaf, Georgia Tech
59. Nasir Mohammed, Notre Dame
76. Elijah Moore, Syracuse
81. Ryan Jones, Virginia Tech (tie)
81. Dallas Thomas, Clemson (tie)
89. Juke Harris, Wake Forest
92. Jacob Cofie, Virginia
94. James Brown, UNC
95. Darrion Sutton, Georgia Tech
 
Maged said:
Wow. This list doesn't exactly make the ACC shine, does it?
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I'm sorry... you think the conference getting 7 of the top 16 recruits in the land (frankly, Maluach should make it 8 as he is only held back by ratings services that don't count foreign players) isn't good?!?! Huh?
 
brevity said:
I covered some of this in the 2025 recruiting thread because 20 of the 28 players invited to try out were in that graduating class. 8 of the 20 made the team.

Patrick Ngongba was one of only 5 from the 2024 class, and 4 of them made the team. Weirdly, the highest rated of the group, Jayden Quaintance, was the one left out. (There were also 3 from the 2026 class, none of whom were selected.)

In checking the class ranking for Jayden Quaintance, I noticed that RSCI put up their final 2024 rankings yesterday. This is a composite of rankings from ESPN, Rivals, 247 Sports, and On3, in that order for the list of Duke freshmen below.

1. Cooper Flagg (1/1/1/1)
14. Kon Knueppel (18/9/17/17) -- tie
16. Isaiah Evans (14/13/13/25)
24. Pat Ngongba (25/28/19/35)
35. Darren Harris (29/38/37/43) -- tie
51. Khaman Maluach (-/-/4/9) -- tie

Other ACC freshmen:

6. Ian Jackson, UNC
7. Jalil Bethea, Miami
8. Donnie Freeman, Syracuse (tie)
11. Drake Powell, UNC (tie)
33. Khani Rooths, Louisville
47. Austin Swartz, Miami
53. Paul McNeil, NC State
57. Jaeden Mustaf, Georgia Tech
59. Nasir Mohammed, Notre Dame
76. Elijah Moore, Syracuse
81. Ryan Jones, Virginia Tech (tie)
81. Dallas Thomas, Clemson (tie)
89. Juke Harris, Wake Forest
92. Jacob Cofie, Virginia
94. James Brown, UNC
95. Darrion Sutton, Georgia Tech
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Now that we have as close as there is to an "authoritative" ranking, I'll emphasize again: in the past 25 years, Duke has never brought in perimeter players ranked as high as Evans and Knueppel who failed to crack the rotation as freshmen. In that group, the guy who played the least that I could find was RSCI #18 Nolan Smith, at 14.7 mpg.

Other guys who were in the 12-18 range: Jared McCain (12), AJ Griffin (18), Tre Jones (13), Gary Trent (14), Frank Jackson (14), Justise Winslow (13). Guys in this range have serious talent.

Maybe Evans and/or Knueppel will break the norm, in a bad way. We're supposedly in a new era, after all. But I'd expect them to fall closer to the mean.
 
JasonEvans said:
I'm sorry... you think the conference getting 7 of the top 16 recruits in the land (frankly, Maluach should make it 8 as he is only held back by ratings services that don't count foreign players) isn't good?!?! Huh?
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Yes, seems like a big improvement from recent years.
 
phaedrus said:
Now that we have as close as there is to an "authoritative" ranking, I'll emphasize again: in the past 25 years, Duke has never brought in perimeter players ranked as high as Evans and Knueppel who failed to crack the rotation as freshmen. In that group, the guy who played the least that I could find was RSCI #18 Nolan Smith, at 14.7 mpg.

Other guys who were in the 12-18 range: Jared McCain (12), AJ Griffin (18), Tre Jones (13), Gary Trent (14), Frank Jackson (14), Justise Winslow (13). Guys in this range have serious talent.

Maybe Evans and/or Knueppel will break the norm, in a bad way. We're supposedly in a new era, after all. But I'd expect them to fall closer to the mean.
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Justise only had to compete with Matt Jones for minutes (Semi left in December). Frank was the only point guardy guy on the roster. Gary had to beat out freshman Alex O'Connell and Jordan Goldwire to be the 3rd guard on a team that played 3 guards. Tre had to beat out sophomores Alex and Jordan to be the PG. AJ had to beat out Jaylen Blakes to be the 3rd guard in a 3-guard rotation. Jared had to beat out Caleb and Jaylen.

They were/are all good players but the minutes were readily available for them.

Evans and K2 have a returning 2-year starter (Tyrese), a returning sixth starter (Caleb), and a 4-year starter transfer who never played less than 65% of Tulane's minutes (Sion) in the guard spots. The consensus #1 recruit (Cooper) should gobble up a boatload of minutes at the 3, and he will probably be backed up by the reigning B10 SMOTY (Mason). There is far more congestion in front of Evans and K2.
 
azzefkram said:
Justise only had to compete with Matt Jones for minutes (Semi left in December). Frank was the only point guardy guy on the roster. Gary had to beat out freshman Alex O'Connell and Jordan Goldwire to be the 3rd guard on a team that played 3 guards. Tre had to beat out sophomores Alex and Jordan to be the PG. AJ had to beat out Jaylen Blakes to be the 3rd guard in a 3-guard rotation. Jared had to beat out Caleb and Jaylen.

They were/are all good players but the minutes were readily available for them.

Evans and K2 have a returning 2-year starter (Tyrese), a returning sixth starter (Caleb), and a 4-year starter transfer who never played less than 65% of Tulane's minutes (Sion) in the guard spots. The consensus #1 recruit (Cooper) should gobble up a boatload of minutes at the 3, and he will probably be backed up by the reigning B10 SMOTY (Mason). There is far more congestion in front of Evans and K2.
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If there's as much congestion (that is, talent) as you think - enough to keep guys on the bench who likely would have been good enough to play big minutes for some really good teams in the past (2015, 2018, 2019, 2022) - then we're bound to have a really, really good team next year. I hope you're right.
 
azzefkram said:
Justise only had to compete with Matt Jones for minutes (Semi left in December). Frank was the only point guardy guy on the roster. Gary had to beat out freshman Alex O'Connell and Jordan Goldwire to be the 3rd guard on a team that played 3 guards. Tre had to beat out sophomores Alex and Jordan to be the PG. AJ had to beat out Jaylen Blakes to be the 3rd guard in a 3-guard rotation. Jared had to beat out Caleb and Jaylen.

They were/are all good players but the minutes were readily available for them.

Evans and K2 have a returning 2-year starter (Tyrese), a returning sixth starter (Caleb), and a 4-year starter transfer who never played less than 65% of Tulane's minutes (Sion) in the guard spots. The consensus #1 recruit (Cooper) should gobble up a boatload of minutes at the 3, and he will probably be backed up by the reigning B10 SMOTY (Mason). There is far more congestion in front of Evans and K2.
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Unless Cooper doesn't play the 3 because we are loaded at the wing and thin in the frontcourt. By design!
 
SkyBrickey said:
Unless Cooper doesn't play the 3 because we are loaded at the wing and thin in the frontcourt. By design!
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Duke is only "thin" in the frontcourt because you have written off a player (Big Pat) that is in the same range as K2 and Evans. The same player who just made the U18 team that Jon is coaching.
 
phaedrus said:
If there's as much congestion (that is, talent) as you think - enough to keep guys on the bench who likely would have been good enough to play big minutes for some really good teams in the past (2015, 2018, 2019, 2022) - then we're bound to have a really, really good team next year. I hope you're right.
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Jon could expand the rotation, but I'm not sure I'd believe that happened even after watching a season of it happening. I expected K2 and Evans to play a lot before Mason and Sion transferred in.
 
azzefkram said:
Duke is only "thin" in the frontcourt because you have written off a player (Big Pat) that is in the same range as K2 and Evans. The same player who just made the U18 team that Jon is coaching.
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To be clear, Jon Scheyer was announced as one of the on-court coaches for the U18 trials in Colorado Springs, as USA Basketball narrowed 28 candidates to a 12-player team. His work is done now, and he is not going to Argentina with the team. That job goes to Arizona's Tommy Lloyd, assisted by Texas Tech's Grant McCasland and Notre Dame's Micah Shrewsberry.
 
azzefkram said:
Duke is only "thin" in the frontcourt because you have written off a player (Big Pat) that is in the same range as K2 and Evans. The same player who just made the U18 team that Jon is coaching.
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Well...

Pat is in the mid-20s while K2 and Evans are in the mid-teens. If you look at historical playing times for Duke recruits there can be a fairly large gap in the performance of players like that... especially big men who sometimes take a bit longer to adjust to the size and physicality of college ball in the paint.

Also, just a point of clarification, Scheyer is not the coach of the U18 team. He was helping out in practice the past few days. He will not be practicing with or coaching the team moving forward as that will fall to the three guys selected by USA Basketball for the job -- head coach Tommy Lloyd (University of Arizona) and assistant coaches Grant McCasland (Texas Tech University) and Micah Shrewsberry (University of Notre Dame).

edit -- brevity beat me to the above point ^^
 
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