2025 Men's Basketball Recruiting

SkyBrickey said:
I'm liking our chances for Wilkins. If he comes, he will be the guy battling Cam Boozer every day in practice.
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I believe Nik Khamenia will get a good bit of practice time at PF and will be the primary person who plays there when Cam is not in games. I also think it is possible we will see some of Maliq Brown at that spot this year as I think the staff wants him to get more than the minutes he would have to split with Big Pat.

Dear lord, I am easing us toward a minutes discussion... noooooo!
 
BlueDevil2K said:
I honestly have no idea. Did Trajan Langdon count against the scholarship limit even though the Padres were paying his tuition? How do you distinguish between an invited walk-on (or the grandson of the head coach) and somebody who makes the team via open tryouts? I have to imagine that the current rules are being manipulated by NIL.
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I *think* Langdon was technically a walk-on. In any case, Duke was never going to hand out that many scholarships -- even in the days in which transfers had to sit out a year, scholarship players were prone to leaving if they weren't cracking the top 10 on the roster, so turnover happened naturally.

I remember reading when the Padres signed Langdon that Langdon would "attempt to make the basketball team as a walk-on." Yeah, I'm sure he was really nervous heading into "tryouts." Watch out for that kid that led BOG to the intramural championship ...
 
King of Defense said:
I *think* Langdon was technically a walk-on. In any case, Duke was never going to hand out that many scholarships -- even in the days in which transfers had to sit out a year, scholarship players were prone to leaving if they weren't cracking the top 10 on the roster, so turnover happened naturally.

I remember reading when the Padres signed Langdon that Langdon would "attempt to make the basketball team as a walk-on." Yeah, I'm sure he was really nervous heading into "tryouts." Watch out for that kid that led BOG to the intramural championship ...
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Langdon was not a walk-on. He was a recruited player. There is a difference between non-scholarship player and walk-on. In the college sports world, a walk-on means the player wasn't recruited. Langdon was heavily recruited out of high school. So he counted against Duke's 13-man recruited player limit, despite Duke not having to pay his scholarship (because he couldn't be awarded a scholarship while being paid by the Padres).
 
CDu said:
Langdon was not a walk-on. He was a recruited player. There is a difference between non-scholarship player and walk-on. In the college sports world, a walk-on means the player wasn't recruited. Langdon was heavily recruited out of high school. So he counted against Duke's 13-man recruited player limit, despite Duke not having to pay his scholarship (because he couldn't be awarded a scholarship while being paid by the Padres).
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The above is 100% correct. Part of Langdon's deal with the Padres was that they would pay his Duke tuition, since playing baseball meant he was not eligible for a basketball scholarship. Trajan still counted against Duke's limit on "recruited players." Trajan got a $230k signing bonus plus his Duke tuition from the Padres. He played a grand total of 50 minor league games for them.
 
Wilkins just played Cam Boozer to a standoff in the Chipotle National semi-final. If he believes he will be given a fair shot to beat out Cam and Khamenia, he might choose Duke over Maryland. However, my hunch is that he will elect to go with a sure starter role for the Terps.
 
Slacker Mills said:
Wilkins just played Cam Boozer to a standoff in the Chipotle National semi-final. If he believes he will be given a fair shot to beat out Cam and Khamenia, he might choose Duke over Maryland. However, my hunch is that he will elect to go with a sure starter role for the Terps.
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“Sure starter role” for Maryland seems like kind of an overstatement. They have coming in at the 4/5 spots Pharrel Payne, who played 20 MPG for Buzz last year at A&M (a 250 lb Senior), and Elijah Saunders, who played 27 MPG for Virginia. I’d doubt Wilkins would be expected to beat out either of them to start.
 
Nugget said:
“Sure starter role” for Maryland seems like kind of an overstatement. They have coming in at the 4/5 spots Pharrel Payne, who played 20 MPG for Buzz last year at A&M (a 250 lb Senior), and Elijah Saunders, who played 27 MPG for Virginia. I’d doubt Wilkins would be expected to beat out either of them to start.
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And 6-7, 220 senior Solomon Johnson who played 20+ mpg last season at A&M as a defensive-minded backup PF.

It would be pretty shocking for Wilkins to play big minutes next season at either school.
 
Nugget said:
“Sure starter role” for Maryland seems like kind of an overstatement. They have coming in at the 4/5 spots Pharrel Payne, who played 20 MPG for Buzz last year at A&M (a 250 lb Senior), and Elijah Saunders, who played 27 MPG for Virginia. I’d doubt Wilkins would be expected to beat out either of them to start.
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If you believe that Saunders' 10 ppg and 5 rebounds in 27 mpg present an obstacle to Wilkins, why is Duke even recruiting him?
 
Slacker Mills said:
If you believe that Saunders' 10 ppg and 5 rebounds in 27 mpg present an obstacle to Wilkins, why is Duke even recruiting him?
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You seem to not be following this recruitment, and I don't mean that to come off as demeaning.

Wilkins is ranked #31 on 247, a high 4-star in the 2026 class. Committing and joining a college program (any program) for the upcoming season would require a reclass. Reclasses that aren't named Cooper Flagg typically drop fairly materially in the rankings when they get re-ranked with the older class. That would imply Wilkins' ranking, I'm guessing, in the 50s. Or worse.

Duke (or presumably Maryland) appears not to be recruiting Wilkins as a starting-caliber, day-1 producer. We're recruiting him as a great fit to (a) fill the end of our bench this season while (b) grooming him to be a contributor in 2026 which was his natural freshman year to begin with.

- Chillin
 
SouthernDukie said:
I'm calling foul here. I never said what you quoted me as saying. Not even close.
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Indoor66 did this to me last week - the quoting tool is somewhat wonky and he quoted me as saying something that someone else had said. He's not doing it maliciously and it was nothing truly awful like "Celtics fans are the best" (just kidding!) but he really needs to be more careful.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
Indoor66 did this to me last week - the quoting tool is somewhat wonky and he quoted me as saying something that someone else had said. He's not doing it maliciously and it was nothing truly awful like "Celtics fans are the best" (just kidding!) but he really needs to be more careful.
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I knew it was only an innocent mistake. I should have put a smiley emoji or something after to be clear.
 
JasonEvans said:
I believe Nik Khamenia will get a good bit of practice time at PF and will be the primary person who plays there when Cam is not in games. I also think it is possible we will see some of Maliq Brown at that spot this year as I think the staff wants him to get more than the minutes he would have to split with Big Pat.

Dear lord, I am easing us toward a minutes discussion... noooooo!
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I think Khamenia will be a 3/4 option for us. 247 has him listed as a SF. 6'8, 210. When I've seen him play, he reminds me a lot of Liam McNeely the way he moves around the floor and handles the ball. I agree either he or Brown will likely be getting Cam's backup minutes - since they should be ahead of Wilkins in the rotation.

My point on Wilkins was that he'd be the main guy matching up with Boozer in practices/scrimmages. Assuming we land him and Sarr, then when we're running 5x5 with our 10 top guys, Wilkins and Boozer will likely be matched up with Khamenia playing SF.

Foster v Boozer
Sarr v Harris
Evans v Khamenia
Boozer v Wilkins
Ngongba v Brown
 
Four crystal balls for Sarr to Duke. Most recent was Rowe's prediction made yesterday (sorry if already mentioned). I'm really liking our chances, and hopefully very soon. Off to binge some YouTube highlights lol
 
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