Jalen Johnson to Duke is gaining a lot of steam

Jalen Johnson is a consensus top five player in the 2020 class. He is a 6-8 wing that can do it all, and everyone school in the country would love to sign him.

If recent 247 Sports Crystal Ball predictions are any indication, it sounds like the Duke Blue Devils may win the Jalen Johnson sweepstakes.

Earlier this month, Johnson announced his top four schools: Kentucky, Duke, Arizona and Wisconsin. John Calipari has been giving this recruitment his best shot. And while Duke and Wisconsin had gotten all of the predictions up to this point, Kentucky still felt very much in the game.

However, Duke has received four predictions for Duke in the last eight days, with three of those coming on Wednesday. While there are several other predictions from Duke, the recent picks by Evan Daniels and Brian Snow kind of feel like the last nails in the coffin.

While it certainly hurts to lose a recruitment to Duke, the writing may have been on the wall for a while. Johnson has continually said that Kentucky WAS his dream school growing up, but the allure of Duke is hard to ignore.

“I love the slogan ‘The Brotherhood.’ That means a lot to me,” Johnson told Rivals.com. ‘‘I am not the type of guy that would want to go away from home because I am more family oriented, but when they dropped the whole spill on The Brotherhood, that made my interest get bigger, because you feel like you are at home with them.”

Apparently, Johnson is close to joining the brotherhood, and we could hear an announcement soon.

The good news is Kentucky appears to be gaining traction with Brandon Boston, who is also likely to play on the wing in college. Perhaps Duke’s surge with Johnson is making Kentucky look more attractive for Boston.