Earlier this week, Duke basketball assistant Emanuel Dildy was at Archbishop Stepinac High School (N.Y.) to check out Adonis and Darius Ratliff, twin sons of 16-year NBA journeyman and one-time All-Star big man Theo Ratliff. And it sounds like the higher-rated brother grew up rooting for the Blue Devils.
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“Duke was my dream school since I was a kid,” Adonis Ratliff, a 6-foot-10, 190-pound four-star forward sitting No. 56 overall on the 247Sports 2026 Composite, told recruiting insider Adam Zagoria.
Duke is here at @step_basketball for Darius and Adonis Ratliff, the sons of former NBA big man Theo Ratliff
Darius is in the green shirt, Adonis in the pink sneakers
The twins are piling up offers from Xavier, Rutgers, Penn State, Stanford, Wake Forest and more pic.twitter.com/HwWDw97UOO
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) October 21, 2024
Darius Ratliff, a 6-foot-11, 205-pound forward without a rating or ranking by his name on 247Sports, said he favors Kentucky and Arkansas as “dream school” destinations.
Both the 17-year-old twins informed Zagoria that they will work to schedule a visit to Duke.
Again, though, Adonis Ratliff, exhibiting more versatility compared to his back-to-the-basket sibling, seems especially excited about potentially checking out the Blue Devils in person.
“Having Duke come in is kind of a blessing,” he noted to Zagoria. “I have no words. It’s kind of crazy because I’ve always wanted to go to Duke…Definitely going to see the campus, talk to the coaches, see how I feel, and go from there.”
Of course, Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer is no stranger to reeling in heralded twins.
Columbus High School (Fla.) five-star guard Cayden Boozer and five-star forward Cameron Boozer, sons of 2001 Blue Devil national champ and two-time NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, became the program’s first two 2025 prizes when they announced their commitments to Scheyer & Co. earlier this month.
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