It’s unanimous. Duke has the nation’s No. 1 basketball recruit for next season.
The 2022 basketball recruiting rankings from all of the major websites have now been updated to reflect Shaedon Sharpe’s early enrollment at Kentucky and this season’s results so far.
The result is good news for the Duke Blue Devils.
In recent weeks, 247Sports, ESPN and the upstart On3.com have all posted new rankings for the 2022 class. On all three of those lists, Duke signee Dereck Lively II — formerly a major UK recruiting target — gained the No. 1 ranking.
That spot previously belonged to Sharpe before his decision to leave high school early and enroll in classes at Kentucky for the current semester, a move that led the recruiting services to reclassify him into the 2021 rankings. (Incidentally, UK Coach John Calipari announced Monday that Sharpe would not play for the Wildcats this season and is expected to make his college debut with the Cats in the 2022-23 campaign).
Rivals.com updated its rankings Monday, and its No. 1 spot also went to a Duke recruit. But it wasn’t Lively. The new No. 1 player in the 2022 class, according to Rivals, is Montverde Academy (Fla.) small forward Dariq Whitehead, who has also signed with Duke for next season.
In fact, future Blue Devils occupied the top three spots on the new Rivals.com list, with Duke signee Kyle Filipowski coming in at No. 2 in the rankings and Lively slotted in the No. 3 spot.
On3.com ranks Whitehead at No. 2 nationally, while 247Sports and ESPN both have him at No. 4.
The Rivals.com rankings were yet another reminder of the massive recruiting success coach-in-waiting Jon Scheyer has had over the past several months as he prepares to take over the Duke program from Coach Mike Krzyzewski following this season. Duke has the No. 1 recruiting class in the 2022 cycle, with additional commitments from five-star forward Mark Mitchell, top 100 recruit Jaden Schutt and high-upside center Christian Reeves.
The new Rivals rankings Monday also brought a bit of positive news for Kentucky.
UK signee Cason Wallace moved up five spots to the No. 5 overall position in the Rivals rankings for the 2022 class. Wallace, who is enjoying a stellar senior season of high school, came in one spot behind Arkansas signee Nick Smith Jr., who Rivals.com ranked at No. 4.
Rivals is overhauling all of its rankings this week, and the recruiting service revealed only the new top five for the 2022 class Monday. More rankings updates — including the full list for the class of 2022 — will be revealed throughout this week.
