If Duke comes up short on Jordan Smith Jr. when the five-star combo guard announces his decision on Friday, February 13, it will sting, not because Duke’s class is in trouble, but because Smith has been the kind of player coaching staffs build a class around.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound product of Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Virginia is the nation’s No. 3 overall prospect in the 247Sports Composite and the top-rated combo guard in the country, and he is down to Arkansas, Duke, Georgetown, Indiana, Kentucky, and Syracuse.
The appeal is easy to understand. Smith is built like a college player already, and his scouting profile reads like it. 247Sports notes a 6-foot-8.5 wingspan and a physical, long frame that translates on both ends, pairing switchable defense with high-level rebounding for a guard. On the EYBL circuit, he produced across the board at 19.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.1 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game, and the evaluation consistently circles back to the same separator, in that he gets downhill like few guards in the class while also showing real on-ball and off-ball versatility.