Hurt, No. 10 in ESPN 100, commits to Duke
Top-10 prospect Matthew Hurt announced his commitment to Duke on Friday afternoon, giving the Blue Devils their third five-star prospect in the 2019 class.
Hurt made his announcement during a ceremony at his high school.
“I’ll be attending Duke University,” Hurt said.
Hurt chose the Blue Devils over a trio of fellow blueblood programs: Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky. Hurt took his official visit to Durham in mid-January, and also took official visits to his other three finalists over the past five months. Duke picked up momentum in the last several weeks after Kentucky landed commitments from top-50 recruit Keion Brooks and Bucknell graduate transfer Nate Sestina — both of whom are frontcourt players — while Kansas was the perceived early leader but lost some ground in recent months.
A 6-foot-8 power forward from John Marshall High School (Minnesota), Hurt is a skilled inside-outside scorer. He is ranked No. 10 in the ESPN 100 and slots in as the No. 2 power forward in the class. Named to both the McDonald’s All-American and Nike Hoop Summit teams, Hurt also won a gold medal with USA Basketball at the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship. He started all six games during the tournament, averaging 14.0 points and 5.3 rebounds.
Hurt is one of the most prolific scorers in Minnesota high school basketball history. He surpassed 3,000 career points this season and finished the season averaging 36.8 points, 12.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 29 games.
Mike Krzyzewski now has three five-star prospects and four top-40 prospects in his 2019 class. Hurt joins elite big man Vernon Carey Jr. (No. 3 in the ESPN 100), strong wing Wendell Moore (No. 19) and talented scorer Rejean “Boogie” Ellis (No. 39). With Duke losing Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish from this past season’s Elite Eight group, the Blue Devils will rely heavily on all four players early in the season.
Duke is tracking to have the No. 1 recruiting class for the third year in a row and the fifth time in six years. The Blue Devils are the favorite for five-star guard Cassius Stanley (No. 27), who is set to announce his college decision on Monday. Oregon, Kansas and UCLA are the other finalists for Stanley.