Why Five Star Recruit Picked Duke Basketball Program

The Duke Blue Devils are preparing for the 2026-27 college basketball season, opening up the season on November 2nd. Duke will open up against Army at home as another exciting season is approaching. 

For the Blue Devils, they have high expectations once again under Jon Scheyer. After a disappointing season a year ago due to the finish in the Elite Eight by blowing a 19-point lead to UConn, Duke reloaded. 

Scheyer and his staff brought in the top recruiting class and welcomed in a lot of key contributors from last season. They may not have a Cooper Flagg or a Cameron Boozer but this is a stacked roster for Scheyer and they could be primed to make another run.

But before the season started, the Blue Devils received some more good news regarding the future of the program. 

On Wednesday, Duke earned a commitment from five-star small forward Asa Montgomery as he became the third player to join the 2027 class. He now joins Kager Knueppel and Australian native Luke Paul. It's a good 2027 class and there could even be room for one more recruit to potentially commit. 

Montgomery had a total of 28 offers and took five visits, all to his finalists. He picked Duke over UConn, North Carolina, LSU, and Georgia Tech. Following his commitment, he spoke on why he picked the Blue Devils. 

ESPN's Jeff Borzello and Paul Biancardi wrote on Montgomery's recruitment and in the story he talks about why he picked Duke. His reasoning? The visit to Duke had a different feeling for him. 

Montgomery told the reporters that everything felt right and it was his dream school. So once he was on the visit and he could see everything, he knew he wanted to commit to the program. He then added that "Duke wins" which was another factor in it.

That lines up with what several experts had to say after the visit, propelling Duke into the lead for this recruitment. Once that visit was over, it was reported that Duke was the team to beat, and that ended up being true.

It's a nice win for the Blue Devils. With the three-man recruiting class, Duke now has the No. 5 recruiting class, jumping up 33 spots from No. 38 with the addition of Montgomery. 

Duke does have a few targets left and there's a chance for a possible reclass as well. It's something we have to monitor moving forward.