We shared a couple weeks ago that outgoing UConn Husky
Juwan Durham would spend the begin of the week of Memorial Day on an official visit to Blacksburg, and that time is here. The 6-11, 207-pounder arrived Sunday and will depart this afternoon. He has already visited Notre Dame and will see Duke this weekend - it certainly looks like an ACC-heavy battle, with Villanova a potential wildcard. He'll have to sit one year, then be eligible to see the floor for the next three seasons, whichever school he chooses.
Durham played just 16.1% of available minutes for the Huskies this season, and missed five games completely (a couple early in the season as he got his feet wet, and then a three-game stretch early in AAC play). He also had low usage when he
was on the floor, but showed to be a pretty good offensive rebounder, the most efficient offensive player thanks to decent two-point percentage and hitting his only two three-point attempts on the year, and solid blocking shots, though with room for improvement. You might call his overall stats a disappointment, but given that he was a true freshman behind two seniors and a sophomore all at or nearing 7-foot status, it was a good introduction to college basketball and could be the perfect setup year for a redshirt under a staff like Buzz Williams (or, to be fair, Mike Kryzyzewski) before breaking out as a redshirt sophomore.
Durham was a four-star out of Tampa (Fla.) Prep in the 2017 class and the No. 47 overall prospect nationally. Florida, Indiana, South Carolina, and Syracuse were among the schools over whom he picked UConn: this was a bigtime prospect with perhaps more potential than his freshman year would have you believe - and that coach Kevin Ollie lamented that it might have been wiser to redshirt him thanks to a lingering injury from his high school days indicates he could take a faster upward trajectory.
By all indications, his visit to Blacksburg is going well, but the vibe is that he still wants to complete his planned official visits before making his (next) commitment. The Hokies lost Seth LeDay a couple weeks ago, then didn't land five-star M.J. Walker last week - he opted for Florida State - leaving the scholarship count one under the maximum entering next season. With frontcourt options like Ty Outlaw (fifth-year senior in 2017-18) and Nick Fullard (redshirt junior) at or approaching the completion of their eligibility during Durham's NCAA-mandated year on the bench, the timing of adding him to the floor for 2018-19 looks like a good fit timing-wise.
At this point, the Duke visit still looms as being very scary, but the Hokies have set themselves up positively. It's a wait-and-see situation with cautious optimism at this stage.
