Dylan Harper is spurning the Duke Blue Devils to stay home and try to build a college basketball winner at the most unlikely of schools. Harper has committed to Rutgers, where his brother Ron Harper Jr. also starred during his college days. It’s the biggest recruiting win in program history for the Scarlett Knights. Harper is rated as the No. 2 player in the class of 2024 behind Duke-bound forward Cooper Flagg.
Dylan Harper commits to Rutgers over Duke in stunning college hoops recruiting decision
Rutgers (!) has now landed two top-3 overall men’s basketball recruits in the class of 2024.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Rutgers men’s basketball has somehow now landed two of the top-three recruits in the class of 2024. The Scarlett Knights already had a commitment from Airious ‘Ace’ Bailey, a 6’8 wing out of Georgia ranked as the No. 3 player in his class.
Dylan Harper has been mentioned as a top prospect in the 2025 NBA Draft behind Flagg. He gives Rutgers a 6’5 lefty guard who can make plays out of the pick-and-roll, drain pull-up jumpers, and defend bigger guards with his strong frame. While not an elite run-and-jump athlete, Harper’s polished floor game could make him a star at the college level as a freshman. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke Harper’s commitment:
Harper picked Rutgers over Duke, Auburn, Kansas, and Indiana. We had Harper ranked as the No. 9 NBA prospect in high school basketball today earlier this year.
Harper is the star at New Jersey prep powerhouse Don Bosco High. Bailey was already the highest-ranked recruit to ever commit to Rutgers. Now he’ll share the floor with an even more highly-touted freshman. Harper and Bailey are ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in their class behind Flagg by both ESPN and 247 Sports.
Rutgers broke a 29-year NCAA tournament drought when the program made the tournament in 2021. The Scarlett Knights danced in March again the following season, but missed the NCAA tournament last year with a 15-12 record. Head coach Steve Pikiell has been with the program since 2016 and is on his way to building a powerhouse for next season. Rutgers is 5-2 to begin this year at the time of Harper’s commitment.
Seeing Rutgers land top players is one of the wilder college basketball recruiting stories in recent memory. Before the class of 2024, Rutgers’ last top-50 recruit came in 2008.
We’ll update this story as it develops.
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