Will Duke's Historically Great 2018 Recruiting Class Live Up to the Hype?

Talk about recruiting classes always has to include the qualifier "on paper." The actual value of a recruiting class is decided between the lines, as are all things in sports.

That applies to the glittering collection of incoming talent set to join Duke's men's basketball team in 2018, too. But never before has a single team signed the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 players in the same class, and the Blue Devils added No. 9 on top of that.

As far as anybody can remember, this is the best recruiting class since Michigan's Fab Five, if not ever.

"By the numbers," said Jerry Meyer, director of basketball scouting for 247Sports, "I would think it would be tough to beat, ever."

The toughest of all to beat is Michigan's Fab Five from 1991. They're like Michael Jordan or The Beatles in that they aren't just considered the best; they represent the idea of what "the best" is and looks like.

The Fab Five started a fashion trend that is still more or less alive to this day. Unseating those guys in the public consciousness may well be impossible for any class even if it does what the Fab Five could not: win a national title.

But on paper, Duke's class is better.

Michigan's Fab Five consisted of five top-85 recruits—the Nos. 1 (Chris Webber), 3 (Juwan Howard), 6 (Jalen Rose), 9 (Jimmy King) and 84 (Ray Jackson). That group has also been compared to Kentucky's 2013 class, which had five of the top 10 players. But with Nos. 1 (R.J. Barrett), 2 (Cameron Reddish), 3 (Zion Williamson) and 9 (Tre Jones), Duke has the winning hand if the object is to have the low cards.

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There is still much to find out, beginning with which positions these guys will play. Jones is a point guard, so that's easy. But Barrett and Reddish are both 6'7" wings, and Williamson is a 6'6", 275-pound refrigerator full of dynamite.

Meyer expects Williamson to play the center spot for Duke, operating in a role similar to what Draymond Green does for the Golden State Warriors. He isn't so sure what Duke will do with Barrett and Reddish, and he notes none of the four are known as particularly good shooters.

"I think they can all play, but, man, being a reliable shooter is so important," Meyer said. "About the three of those guys, you're not ever going to start out the conversation saying they're shooters. You can make arguments they can shoot, you can say they're not that bad a shooter, they can keep the defense honest. But when you put those types of players out there like that, I don't know. They can all play. The question is the shooting."

If Meyer is right, Duke could find itself in the unusual position of playing a pace-and-space game without any three-point shooters, which is less than optimal.

"I think it's a small-ball lineup," he said. "I think you gotta get a shooter in there."

If that doesn't work out, the Blue Devils may have to see whether chef Mike Krzyzewski can manage to make a meal out of the world's finest ingredients.

Tough times, indeed.

The other peculiarity is that the class' most famous player (Williamson) is not its top-ranked player (Barrett).  

Williamson looks like a Hall of Fame defensive end who somehow wound up on a high school basketball team. His pulverizing dunks rival any that have ever been seen on this planet. 

He also came from outside of the loose circle the other three players inhabited in the Nike EYBL. Reddish, Barrett and Jones competed against one another on the same circuit for years, and when this class began to take shape, they actively helped shape it.

According to Meyer and two of the AAU coaches involved, the three EYBL guys weren't a package deal, but they kept in touch about their plans, and each signed with Duke in the fall. Those three alone already gave Duke a great class.

Although Duke and North Carolina were in the mix for Williamson, most analysts expected him to pick Clemson, as Langston Wertz Jr. of the Charlotte Observer noted in January.

When Williamson committed to Duke on Jan. 20, he added one of the most intimidating physical forces ever to hit the college game to a group that already had plenty of finesse.

Rob Brown, who has coached Reddish in the Team Final program since he was in grade school, says he can't think of any major holes in Reddish's game.

"He's one of the better perimeter players I've seen in the Nike EYBL since probably Kevin Durant," Brown said. "Complete with size and his ball skills and shooting skills, it kind of is reminiscent of KD. It's very easy for him. There are people that are meant to do things in life, and I think Cameron fell in love with what he was supposed to do."

Barrett's scouting report is similar, giving Duke the two smoothest scorers in the class. But the key to the Blue Devils' success next season might well be the lowest-ranked player of the bunch.

Tre Jones is the kid brother to Tyus Jones, who played at Duke and now suits up for the Minnesota Timberwolves. The younger Jones has never been allowed to forget it.

Jones' AAU coach, Rene Pulley of Howard Pulley Basketball, has watched that chip grow on his shoulder since he was a little kid. He then watched it propel him to a monster senior year of high school.

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"He knew he wasn't his brother, but I think he was also a guy who got tired of hearing about his brother," Pulley said. "He wanted to make his own path and his own destiny."

As a junior, Jones wasn't among the top 60 players in the class, according to Pulley. He had 12 point guards ranked ahead of him.

"In the EYBL, he played against seven of them," Pulley said. "And one by one, he destroyed them."

When Pulley watched Duke this season, he thought the Blue Devils sorely needed a player like Jones.

"What he is?" Pulley asked. "He's a winner."

That's a safe bet for the coming season. Kentucky won the national championship in 2012 with a roster that relied primarily on freshmen, and three years later, Duke won a championship with freshmen as three of its top four scorers.

This year's Blue Devils class is on another level from even those teams.

Then again, consider the Fab Five or the 2013-14 Kentucky Wildcats. Those teams suggest the Blue Devils could be in for a great year that falls just short of a national title, as they lose in the final to a more mature team.

But that's on paper.