Duke Beats Every Single Rival For First Commitment Of 2019

So this was a pretty major commitment for Duke to land. Wendell Moore, a top-20 recruit in the class of 2019, was deciding between Duke, UNC, Wake Forest and NC State. Needless to say he knows what area of the country he wanted to play in as he wanted to stay home in North Carolina.

The reason I’m writing about this though? Duke finally got a commitment. It’s been one of the talking points leading into the season as we have guys committing pretty much on a daily basis right now. Duke had 0 commits heading into yesterday, just a year removed from landing its best class on paper.

Part of the reason was Jeff Capel leaving for the Pitt job. Capel became one of the best recruiters in the country as an assistant for Duke, being the main guy to drop the bag, be the lead recruiter on plenty of the big commitments Duke had in recent years. It also didn’t help when Bryan Antoine and Josiah James – two guys Duke was pretty heavy after – decided to go elsewhere.

Moore is a 6’5″ wing who shot over 50 % from the field during the EYBL circuit where he also averaged 17 per game. He’s someone who uses his length to disrupt guys on the defensive side of the ball and then can take advantage of a mismatch on the offensive side. He’s also spent time with USA Basketball, playing on the gold medal winning U-16 team and U-18 team in 2017 and 2018 respectively.