Jayson Tatum Commits to Duke – Duke Report

In 2010, top 20 recruit Ray McCallum committed to play for Horizon League school Detroit, but McCallum’s father and Detroit head coach Ray McCallum Sr. gave the Titans a significant advantage, and McCallum wasn’t nearly as highly regarded as Tatum.

Five star small forward Jayson Tatum announced that he had chosen the Blue Devils over Kentucky, North Carolina and home-town St. Louis.

The Peach Jam is arguably the best live period recruiting tournament in the country.

Tatum is Duke’s first commitment from the Class of 2016 and could be the key to landing the second considering he’s close friends with fellow five-star forward Harry Giles – the consensus top prospect in the Class of 2016.

If Tatum does end up spurning the Blue Bloods to play in his hometown, he would likely speed up the Billikens’ rebuilding process dramatically, if only for a year.

“I’m just so happy to be a part of this program with great coaches like this”, he said. “My relationships with the Duke coaches were the best, and they made me a priority”.

Because of these quotes and a few other factors it appears that Duke might be the favorite to land Tatum, but he did throw a little wrinkle into the discussion this week when he said he would consider becoming a package deal with Harry Giles, ESPN’s number one 2016 recruit, who also has UNC, Kentucky and Duke on his list. Tatum has just decided where he’ll be playing college basketball after his upcoming senior year. Their United States of America Basketball under-19 team won the gold medal.

A class that includes both Tatum and Giles would be very hard to overcome in the team recruiting rankings.