Duke’s chase for AJ Williams just got a whole lot more interesting.
For most of the summer, the Blue Devils had been building their 2027 board around a few clear names: elite wing Kager Knueppel, 5-star center Lewis Uvwo and 5-star guard Beckham Black. But Williams has been the headliner all along - not just for that class, but for Duke’s overall wish list.
Until Tuesday, the 5-star forward from Hampton, Georgia was the No. 1 player in the 2028 class. Now he’s moved up to 2027.
Williams made the reclassification official on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
NEWS: 2028’s No. 1 overall recruit, AJ Williams, is reclassifying into the 2027 class, he told @Rivals.
The 6-7 wing holds 25 offers, including Duke, North Carolina, Auburn, BYU, Kansas, Georgia, and more. https://t.co/caEZmitVRB pic.twitter.com/Z0n6FL9FvQ
- Joe Tipton (@JoeTipton) August 4, 2026
That shift changes the timeline, but not Duke’s level of interest. Jon Scheyer offered Williams last month, a fast move by his standards and a pretty loud signal about where Williams stood on the board. Williams and Colton Hiller were the only 2028 prospects to hold a Duke offer at the time; now, with Williams moving up a class, Hiller is the lone name left from that group.
That’s the kind of offer that carries real weight. Scheyer doesn’t scatter them around, and when he decides a player is a priority, Duke usually ends up in the thick of it. Williams is exactly the kind of recruit who fits that profile: a 6-7 wing with 25 offers and interest from a national stack of heavy hitters, including North Carolina, Auburn, BYU, Kansas and Georgia.
The ranking slide that sometimes comes with a reclassification hasn’t really touched him, either. Williams did drop a bit after moving up, but he remains a Top 5 overall player in the composite.
Duke has been viewed as the favorite for a while, but the path to the finish line is hardly clean. BYU has already shown it’s willing to go big in recruitment battles, as seen with AJ Dybantsa last year. Arkansas and John Calipari are right there too, and Georgia has a built-in pitch that could matter if Williams wants to stay close to home and follow the Anthony Edwards route.
So yes, this is going to be a fight. But it’s one Duke has every reason to believe it can win. And if Scheyer lands Williams, the idea of a class built around Williams, Black, Uvwo and Knueppel suddenly looks very real.
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