Three-star defensive lineman Bariate Kara talks about the Duke visit and the decision-making process.
The three-star lineman claims he has a date set for his announcement following his visit to Durham last week, where he met with the new Blue Devil staff three times.
By utilizing every talent acquisition avenue, including the nation’s top recruiting class and the transfer portal to get seasoned guards and wings from successful schools, Jon Scheyer assembled a strong roster for his third squad. This resulted in the nation’s 20th-best portal class. The twelve scholarship players combined make up one of the most skilled and deepest rosters in college basketball. They must be, since Scheyer has arranged games against a plethora of elite teams outside the Atlantic Coast league, including as Illinois in Madison Square Garden later in the season, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, and an SEC foe in the second year of that league challenge
With guards Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster the only two remaining members of the Elite Eight team from the previous season, the Blue Devils’ supporters will be getting to know 10 new members of the team. Last year, Scheyer and his staff did not bring in a single player through the transfer window. This year, however, they changed their strategy and welcomed four new players: Cameron Sheffield, Mason Gillis, Sion James, and Maliq Brown. All four of them have played collegiate basketball for at least two years; James and Gillis arrived to Duke as graduate transfers, while the other two were undergraduates. In order to become bigger and tougher, Scheyer and his aides identified a template of a player they intended to bring in through the gateway. They succeeded in doing so, somewhat offsetting a sizable freshmen class of six.
Leading that rookie class is Cooper Flagg, who is expected to be selected in the top three in the NBA Draft in 2025. As one of the most anticipated freshman in recent memory, Flagg is already well-known around the sports world. Flagg, despite his extraordinary potential, reclassified to the 2024 class, making him one of the nation’s youngest players. One of the most promising players to emerge from the NBA Global Academy in Africa, 7-foot-1 center Khaman Maluach, is expected to be selected in the lottery in 2025. Similar like Flagg, Maluach reclassified this year to become a freshman in college and will not turn eighteen until this September.
Four-Star teammates Patrick Ngongba and Darren Harris, who were invited to the Jordan Brand Classic High School All-Star Game, are joining Five-Star wings Isaiah Evans and Kon Knueppel. They also assisted Paul VI Catholic in winning a National Championship Game against Flagg’s Montverde Academy.
