Duke bolsters No. 1 basketball recruiting class with another five-star addition

Five-star basketball recruit Mark Mitchell announced his commitment to the Duke Blue Devils on Friday afternoon, giving the program another highly touted player for next season and all but locking up the No. 1 class for this cycle.

Mitchell — a versatile, 6-foot-8 small forward from Kansas — chose Duke over fellow finalists UCLA and Missouri. He is the No. 10 overall player in the 247Sports rankings for the class of 2022.

He’s also the fifth high school player to join future head coach Jon Scheyer’s first recruiting class in charge of the Blue Devils, who signed center Dereck Lively II, small forward Dariq Whitehead, combo forward Kyle Filipowski and shooting guard Jaden Schutt last month. Scheyer, who will take over for Coach Mike Krzyzewski after this season, also has an early commitment from junior point guard Caleb Foster.

Lively is the No. 1 overall prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings for 2022, with Whitehead at No. 4 and Filipowski at No. 7 on that list. Schutt, who is viewed as a knockdown three-point shooter, is ranked No. 55. (Foster, who has entertained the possibility of reclassifying to 2022, is No. 9 nationally in the 2023 composite rankings).

For a while, Mitchell was seen as a possible deciding factor in the race for the No. 1 team recruiting ranking in the 2022 cycle. His commitment to Duke — over main competitor UCLA — gives the Blue Devils a wide lead at the top of the 247Sports team rankings.

That list was shuffled when star Kentucky signee Shaedon Sharpe made it clear that he would join the Wildcats at the semester break, and 247Sports reclassified him into the 2021 rankings as a result. Sharpe had been ranked No. 1 overall, and Kentucky’s class was tops in the nation at that time. (Sharpe, now No. 3 in 2021, plans to practice only with UK this season).

With Sharpe out and UK’s class consisting of just three players — five-stars Skyy Clark, Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston — the Cats are currently No. 8 overall in the 247Sports rankings.

Kentucky is now pursuing Yohan Traore — ranked No. 9 overall and the only uncommitted player in the top 20 of the 247Sports composite — but even a commitment from Traore would lift the Cats to only the No. 2 spot in the team rankings, with Duke still at No. 1. If Sharpe was still included in UK’s 2022 class, the Cats would still be at No. 2 behind Duke, now that the Blue Devils have added Mitchell to their class.

As it stands, Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas and Southern Cal round out the top five.

Barring a massive change in the individual player rankings or some major reclassifications after the season, Duke will end up with the No. 1 class for Scheyer’s first season as head coach.