Five-star guard Trevor Keels has committed to Duke.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) April 2, 2021
Keels to @PaulBiancardi: "Me and Coach K have a great relationship. He was always the same during the process. Straightforward guy. He told me what I needed to hear."
Blue Devils now have three five-star commitments in 2021.
After hearing of four different roster defections – five if you count associate head coach Nate James – in the past nine days, the Blue Devils were due for something positive to break their way. The first good news of the 2021 off-season finally came on Friday afternoon, when Trevor Keels announced on national television that he’d be signing a letter of intent to play for Duke this upcoming season. The five-star recruit from Fairfax, VA is the 19th-ranked overall prospect on ESPN’s class of 2021 rankings and the fourth highest among all shooting guards.
As mentioned in the previous entry, Duke will hope for Keels to immediately fill the void created last night by DJ Steward’s departure. While the addition of Keels may lead some Duke fans to think of how the two could’ve hypothetically fit together had Steward stayed, it’s worth noting the improbability of both Steward returning for a sophomore season and Keels joining him. It was always going to be one or the other at best for Duke, and only time will tell which would’ve been the better option. One thing is for sure, Keels has everything that Steward lacked in terms of size, clocking in at 6’5” and 210 pounds on most recruiting sites.
While Keels and Steward is a duo that will likely never play for Duke at the same time, Keels and Jeremy Roach already have a lot of familiarity together as former high school teammates. The two led Paul VI High School to the VISSA Championship in 2020 before Roach graduated and moved on to Durham. After selecting Duke, Keels cited his relationships with both Roach and Coach K as major factors that led to his commitment. The reunion should help Keels as he adjusts to playing at the collegiate level. Just as importantly, it should also help Roach's level of comfortability after a turbulent freshman season.
 |
| The Blue Devils will hope for Keels to fill the void left by DJ Steward's departure. Source: Lexington Herald Leader |
With three of the top twenty recruits in the fold for next season, Duke will try once again to parlay a loaded recruiting class into the program’s sixth NCAA Championship. While lightning did strike once for Duke with a similar, but not identical, formula in 2015, there isn’t a Quinn Cook or Amile Jefferson you can point to on the 2021-22 roster. Player continuity tends to win the day more often than not, even in the current hectic climate of college basketball. For the Blue Devils to return to the top of the mountain, the forward steps taken by the returning players will be every bit as important as the shiny new toys arriving on campus in the fall.
Top prospects of all shapes and sizes have come through the program over the last ten years, and we’ve seen that it can be hard to project just how much of an impact some of these freshman will make in their one (and usually only) season in Durham. Keels has a great physical build for his age – he won’t turn 18 until August – and a sweet shooting stroke, but what could serve him best are the intangibles that his high school coach Glenn Farello raved about in an interview with the Washington Post:
“[Keels] has a complete commitment to the team winning, to being a great teammate, to doing whatever it takes. He always has.”
After a 13-11 season, a commitment to winning is exactly what this Blue Devil team needs. Who all Keels will be sharing the court with this season is still up in the air, but he should be primed to make an immediate impact for a team needing a serious jolt on the perimeter.
No comments:
Post a Comment