Duke picks up the number one player in the 2016 basketball recruiting class in Harry Giles.
The saga that is the recruitment of Harry Giles, the No.1 recruit in the 2016 class, is finally over. Giles just went on SportsCenter at noon and announced that he will be attending Duke for presumably just one year before entering the 2017 NBA Draft.
By landing Giles, Duke has all but finalized the No. 1 overall recruiting class in 2016. He will join his friend Jayson Tatum, the No. 3 player in the class (according to Scout.com), who committed to Duke over the summer. Duke also has commitments from point guard Frank Jackson (no. 17), and power forward Javin DeLaurier (no. 40).
Giles picked Duke over Kentucky, Kansas, and Wake Forest.
The recruitment of Giles has been ongoing for many years, as he grew up in Winston-Salem, attended the elementary school across the street from Wake Forest, and played his first three years of high school at Wesleyan Christian Academy in High Point.
Giles unfortunately tore his ACL earlier in the week in his first game for Oak Hill Academy and will miss the rest of the season.
Danny Manning, by all accounts and information that we had, did the absolute best job that he could do throughout the recruitment of Harry Giles. While his mother reportedly wanted him to attend Wake Forest, his father preferred Duke, and at the end of the Coach Krzyzewski and his staff managed to land yet another elite 5 star recruit to add to its history.
Through the information that we have on the recruitment, there is little doubt that the hiring of Jeff Bzdelik and that period in Wake Forest basketball did extensive damage to the recruitment of Giles. During that timeframe Giles was attending Wake Forest games on a regular basis, and developed several deep relationship with Wake Forest players and some of the coaches.
Coach Manning and the current staff made a lot of headway to repair that damage, but in the end they were not able to overcome it. Giles reportedly told the staff earlier in the week that he would not be attending Wake, but Duke instead.
Although extremely disappointed that Harry has chosen to attend Duke University instead of playing for his hometown Wake Forest University. We at Blogger So Dear extend best wishes to him in his rehab, and continued success throughout his career.
