Duke Recruiting: Nikolas Khamenia Explains His Decision
A promising talent, Khamenia picked Duke for a fairly obvious reason
Duke’s recruiting class is off to a terrific start with the Boozer twins (Cameron and Cayden) and most recently Nikolas Khamenia.
A promising 6-8 forward with a lot of versatility, Khamenia was widely expected to pick UCLA before surprising many by choosing Duke.
In this article, Khamenia explains his decision and it comes down to one basic factor: he thinks Duke will help him to get ready for the NBA.
Here’s his reasoning:
“Coach (Jon) Scheyer has put four guys in the NBA in the three years he’s been there. He believes in young guys. He brings in freshman and even when they struggle at the beginning of the season, he’s still behind them, he still trusts them.
“Ultimately for me, I know to reach my full potential, I’m going to have to improve body wise. (Duke) is just a place I think I can really reach that potential.”
We don’t know anything about training facilities and protocols at UCLA and Gonzaga, his other two finalists, but it’s hard to imagine they’re better than what Duke offers. We’ve mentioned before that Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) is a sort of secret weapon for Duke Basketball. You’re simply not going to get better medical care anywhere. You might get roughly equivalent care at UCLA, but not better.
The science that Duke can bring to bear on training and conditioning is also off the charts. Toss in the level of competition and exposure and the Blue Devils must have looked pretty good compared to the Bruins.