Andre Dawkins graduates high school, will enroll at Duke

Earlier this week, Jon Scheyer did two interviews (with Rivals and SI) where he ... how do I say this ... oozed confidence? Scheyer was quoted in both publications as saying, actually it was closer to guaranteeing, that Duke would be a top 10 team by the end of the year. He caught some flack around the intrawebs for these comments.

Maybe he already knew something we didn't.

Yesterday, news broke that Andre Dawkins, a 17 year old fourth year junior in high school (he repeated freshman year after transferring), had finished enough credits in summer school to graduate a year early. He will be enrolling at Duke for the fall semester.

This is huge for the Blue Devils. As has been widely reported, Duke was left with just two guards on their roster after Gerald Henderson went pro and Elliot Williams transferred to Memphis. It doesn't take a basketball genius to figure out that you need more than two guards on your roster to be successful in the ACC.

Even if the Blue Devils had a full roster in the back court, signing a consensus top 25 player (and top 10 by some publications) is always a good thing. But more than talent, what Dawkins provides the short-handed Devils is versatility.

Last season, Jon Scheyer struggled when he was forced to play the two. The bigger, more athletic wing defenders were wreaked havoc on his ability to score. But when he played the point, he was able to use his size and strength advantage to get his shot off, and overall seemed a much more confidant player. With Dawkins on the roster, Scheyer will be able to slide over and get some time at the one.

Almost as important is that this third guard will allow Kyle Singler to get some time at the four spot. What makes Singler such an effective player is that his skill set is essentially that of a wing player, but his size allows him to defend the four. This creates an easily exploitable mismatch on the offensive end. If Singler had to play strictly as a two or three, I'm not sure he would be as effective offensively and I'm fairly certain he would struggle defensively against the smaller, quicker wings in the ACC.

Duke fans shouldn't count on Dawkins as their savior. He's not the same type of player as Henderson or Williams. Those two were athletic slashers and excellent defenders. Right now, Dawkins is a scorer with a lights out jumper. While he is "bouncy", he has yet to learn to use that athleticism to get to the rim or defend to ACC standards. Think Wayne Ellington as a freshman.

So Dawkins may not be the answer to Duke's season, he certainly is a large piece to the puzzle.

UPDATE: Here's a highlight video of Dawkins from high school (via RTC).