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Duke gets another top-10 player
By Dave Telep, BlueChipHoops.com The Duke Blue Devils made a home visit with power forward Shelden Williams Sunday night and apparently things went better than expected. One of the key big man targets in the nation has fallen from the ranks of the uncommitted and will announce for the Blue Devils on Tuesday. Ranked No. 5 in the BlueChipHoops post-summer rankings, Williams has committed to Duke. We have confirmed through three independent sources that Williams made the decision on Sunday night. "He's going to make an oral commitment [Tuesday]," one Midwest City athletic department official said. The announcement will take place at the high school at 11:15 a.m. Williams was a key target for Duke, North Carolina, Illinois and Oklahoma. He's stated for the last few months that the Blue Devils were his leader and made Duke his first official campus visit. He was scheduled to visit Illinois, Oklahoma and North Carolina later this month. He's a key target because he has proven to be one of the very elite prospects in the class. He's a proven low-post scorer and shot-blocker who puts up big numbers. He's also taken his game to the next level with the addition of a reliable jump shot that can extend to 3-point range. Our sources stated that the family began calling schools shortly after Mike Krzyzewski came into his home on Sunday night for an in-home visit. Williams actually surprised some interested parties when he left the Duke campus in August without giving a commitment. Previously, he's talked about making all of his official visits, but that doesnıt look like it's happening. Williams joins Michael Thompson, Sean Dockery, Lee Melchionni and JJ Redick as committed players to the Duke basketball program. His commitment could impact the national recruiting scene as he was such a prominent target that the dominoes could begin to fall nationally. Duke has room for another prospect as it could ask Melchionni to walk-on and remains in the hunt for Shavlik Randolph. This is the makings of the nation's top recruiting class as both Redick and Thompson rank among the Top 20 players in the country, Dockery checks in at No. 30 Melchionni is a potential Top 100 type. News and notes from around the country:
But, according to our sources close to the situation, Texas is now the team to beat and could wind up with a commitment from Hopkins as early as Tuesday. Texas had been recruiting Hopkins and power forward Brad Buckman exclusively since July. Southern Methodist did a tremendous job in recruiting Hopkins and put a charge into the college basketball scene when it pulled off last week's commitment coup. Then, the bad news came. Hopkins was still listening to various schools, namely Texas, and it became clear over the weekend that the chance existed he could be reopening his recruitment.
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