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Five-star wing Brandon Ingram today picked his college, and to nobody’s surprise, he picked the Duke Blue Devils over the Kentucky Wildcats, the North Carolina Tar Heels, the N.C. State Wolfpack and Kansas Jayhawks.
Duke's recruiting class got even better with 5-star Brandon Ingram committing http://t.co/iNbpeInd2X pic.twitter.com/2JCH1HgGz5
— SB Nation CBB (@SBNationCBB) April 27, 2015
So... Duke's class now has four 5-star players: Brandon Ingram, Luke Kennard, Derryck Thornton, Chase Jeter. And 3-star PF Antonio Vrankovic
— Ben Roberts (@NextCats) April 27, 2015
Ingram was always a long shot for Kentucky. He’s from Kingston, North Carolina — roughly 100 miles from Durham and Chapel Hill. As such, both UNC and Duke were always the betting favorites, even though John Calipari has stolen a few players from under the noses of their home-state schools. Unfortunately, that will not be the case this time.
This acquisition puts Duke at the top of the 2015 recruiting rankings. Ingram will join the likes of blue chippers Luke Kennard, Derryck Thornton and Chase Jeter. Kentucky still has several outstanding players who may come to Lexington, and any one of them would likely propel Kentucky to the top of the rankings over the Blue Devils. But for now, Duke has the top class in 2015. Remaining UK 2015 recruits are:
- Jaylen Brown (SF)
- Cheik Diallo (PF)
- Thon Maker (PF)
- Jamal Murray (2G) (requires a reclassification from 2016)
- Mychal Mulder (2G) (transfer from Vincennes)
In the coming days, the final dominoes for 2015 will fall, and hopefully a few of them will fall the Wildcats’ way. Duke still appears to have a couple of scholarships left, so they could theoretically add more players even though I’m unaware of any others that coach Krzyzewski is recruiting for 2015.