Tyus Battle, the best player in New Jersey in the Class of 2016, took his official visit to Duke this weekend and took this picture with reigning national champion players Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Matt Jones and Grayson Allen.
The photo was posted by Andrew Slater of 247Sports.com.
Battle is a major priority for the Blue Devils going forward.
Coach K came to Gladstone (N.J.) Gill St. Bernard’s with assistants Jeff Capel and Jon Scheyer for a second time in December to see Battle, ranked No. 15 by ESPN.com in the Class of 2016.
“We like a Duke a lot, what’s not to like?” Gary Battle, the player’s father, told SNY.tv then. “They’re playing some great basketball right now. Coach K is very good at adapting to his players. Obviously, it’s a great academic school, that’s important to us, important to Tyus.”
The subject of the SNY.tv documentary, “The Battle Plan,” Battle is considering Duke along with Louisville, Kentucky, UConn, Michigan, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Ohio State. He begins an official visit to Louisville on Sunday.
Coach K has been in to see Battle twice and Duke assistants have been in two other times.
“It is a fact that Tyus is a critical component to their 2016 class,” Gary said in December. “He’s not the only one, but they’re not recruiting two guys at his position. To do what he does, they’re recruiting him to be a versatile basketball player. Coach K plays guys interchangeably, and Tyus would primarily be a wing, two or three, but he’s a versatile basketball player. So he’ll be able to dribble and facilitate as well as doing some stuff in the post once in a while, be a mismatch, so that’s kind of attractive to us in a variety of ways.
“And he’s going to be able to do what he does on the perimeter, which I think is really important for him to get to the next level. He’ll be able to make shots and defend. Kind of a new brand of basketball, that Euro/American brand of basketball that’s going on now.”
