Last year, just after Duke’s first ever Elite Camp in the Summer, an intriguing prospect began to emerge as one of Duke’s favorites and Duke as one of his. 6’10″ wing forward Quincy Miller shot up the rankings just before his Sophomore year, his height rising just as fast as his status on the high school hoops circuit. In the Summer of 2008, Quincy stood 6’5″ and in one year’s time grew 5 inches.
Now in a power forward’s body, he didn’t lose much of the ball-handling or shooting skills he had when he played that position as a youngster and that has made the Chicago native a very intriguing prospect for quite some time. As talented as he is, Quincy is just as gregarious as anyone would know if they follow him on Twitter.
Although Quincy is always quick to laugh at UNC on the social media site, many Duke fans had presumed this Top 3 recruit from the Class of 2011 had strayed to a team in the state of Kentucky. Most recently Louisville, but for quite some time the prevailing thought amongst Duke fans was that Quincy would end up as a Kentucky Wildcat. Once Anthony Davis experienced a similar rise in height and rankings, the Kentucky Wildcats seemed to move on from the North Carolina baller. Louisville is thought to be in good with Miller as their new assistant coach, Tim Fuller, is known to be friendly with the youngster and they have been in pursuit for some time.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Quincy tweeted that he planned to attend Duke’s version of Midnight Madness on October 15th.
Is this a sign of renewed interest in Duke by Quincy, or the other way around? There is always room for a talent like Quincy on a roster, and a lot of players are intrigued by playing with elite guards, which Duke certainly looks to have a stable of for the immediate future.
It’s amazing what a difference this past National Title has made on Duke’s recruiting. We are on just about every elite player’s list for the Class of 2012. Having Coach K as the Olympic coach certainly can’t hurt, as so many of these youngsters want to play for USA Basketball after seeing their idols shed their own desires and sacrificed multiple Summers for their country. Seeing the Duke coach as one of the leaders of the Olympic basketball movement, now that it’s desirable to be a part of it, is a nice byproduct of his own patriotic sacrifice.
It will be interesting to watch as the Quincy Miller recruitment progresses towards a likely Spring decision, but with two visits lined up, one to Louisville on September 4th and one to Duke on October 15th, we clearly are still in the running. Quincy told HighSchoolHoop.com that he had pegged three of the possible five schools to receive official visits during his senior year in Oklahoma, Louisville, and Baylor. With two spots left on that list, let’s hope that Duke is one of them…
