2018 guard David Duke cancelled his visit to Villanova, will visit Providence

So, this is an interesting development. David Duke, class of 2018 combo guard, cancelled his visit to the Villanova Wildcats on Wednesday. Duke, however, will still be taking an official visit to the Providence Friars. The news was reported by Rivals.com’s Corey Evans.

Ed Cooley and Jay Wright have been the strongest pursuers of Duke for some time now. While he also had interest from Mike White the Florida Gators, the Gators recently landed Noah Locke and Andrew Nembhard. Those moves figure to take the Gators out of the equation. He also recently took an official visit to the Virginia Tech Hokies on September 29. But he did leave without a commitment, and the Friars are last, coming this weekend, starting on Friday.

It would appear, on the surface, that Cooley may very well have taken a giant step forward ahead of Wright in the race for Duke. It does not necessarily take ‘Nova out of the running. It certainly does put them on their heels a little bit.

Duke is widely regarded as one of the top players in the class of 2018. The Cushing Academy (MA) combo guard ranks 48th among all his peers in this recruiting cycle. He is fifth among all combo guards, with Anfernee Simons, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu and Ja’Vonte Smart ranking ahead of him. He’s also currently the top player in the state of Rhode Island, and a Providence native himself.

With a strong class of three so far in 2018, headlined by A.J. Reeves and also featuring Jimmy Nichols and Kris Monroe, landing a player of Duke’s caliber would be huge for the Friars and their program. Their class currently sits second in the Big East behind Villanova and 23rd in the nation. 247Sports’ Class Calculator projects that the Friars would soar all the way up to 7th in the nation if they were to land David Duke, assuming all things held.