Shabazz Muhammad and Alex Murphy

These two 2012 wings are very coveted members of any recruiting class by themselves. After the Tournament of Champions Tournament in the Triangle, both received offers from the reigning National Champion Duke Blue Devils. Clearly, when looking at Duke's future, Coach Mike Krzyzewski and staff would love to see the two of them playing together for his squad.

While they both play small forward currently, it's really hard to slap a label on either player right now as they are both so young and versatile. Shabazz (called "Bazz" by his team mates) and his family see him as a Shooting Guard in college and professionally and at 6'5", he is the perfect size for that position on both levels. Alex stands 6'8" at this time, but seeing as his brother stands 6'10" and his Dad stood 6'9", many believe he will reach the same height. Alex is a bit more versatile than Erik who currently plays for the Florida Gators, can handle the ball well, and has a wonderful outside shot for a player his size.

There has been a recent flurry of activity regarding Alex Murphy on Twitter, starting with this @TheRecruitScoop tweet:

Check out this premium Scout.com piece which entails Coach K's pitch to Alex Murphy '12. It looks like a done deal at http://bit.ly/d8UYQ5less than a minute ago via TweetDeckAlex Kline
TheRecruitScoop

The piece he was referring to was a comment from a reader who reported having some talks with Alex's father, Jay Murphy and the talks were reportedly pro-Duke. I can't go into any other details regarding the post, as that information is property of the UCONN Premium Scout.com site. What we know here at Dukehoop is that Alex has always stood by the fact that he will commit when he it feels right. We do know that the visit went very well and that the Murphy family may not be as enthralled with Billy Donovan and staff as they are with Duke. A National Championship will do that.

As to the link between Murphy and Muhammad, the two are good friends, and both respect each other's games.

Alex even got Shabazz on Twitter recently: http://twitter.com/AlexMurphy5/status/16281261662

And calls him "my man": http://twitter.com/AlexMurphy5/status/16283826088

Duke is in very good shape with Murphy and will remain in the hunt for Shabazz as one of his leaders along with unc and Kansas. Landing Murphy would seemingly give them a leg up on the competition, and it may come before the Summer is over...

Here's some more reading on the two:

http://www.newenglandrecruitingreport.com/news/article/1444/Duke-Offers-Murphy.php

http://www.zagsblog.com/2010/06/01/duke-offers-2012-duo-of-murphy-muhammad/

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/may/27/shabazz-muhammad-052710/