Patrick Baldwin Jr. Sweepstakes Show Signs of Approaching Finish Line

Three anxious fan bases await the decision from the fourth-ranked prospect in the Class of 2021.

Holy crap, will Patrick Baldwin Jr. just decide already?

Aminu Mohammed’s recruitment feels like a cakewalk compared to the time that Baldwin Jr. has taken in determining what school he will be attending in the fall. And while we’re certainly not knocking PBJ for taking the time to make sure that he makes the right decision for him…this has got a lot of folks on edge.

Per multiple sources, Baldwin Jr. was expected to announce his decision by the end of last week (that is, by April 25). Georgetown was feeling so good about their chances, in fact, that Patrick Ewing himself had teased some “major recruiting news” at the end of the week to a couple of people around the program.

But obviously, PBJ did not commit by the end of the week. And that’s what has people on the Georgetown side of things a little more anxious than they were at the end of last week. Did they get a little too confident in their chances? Only time will tell.

It’s not known what has led to PBJ taking even longer to make his decision. There are a couple of guesses from our end though. One is the death of Terrence Clarke, the former top high school recruit who had just completed his freshman year at the University of Kentucky, and tragically passed away in a car accident last week. It’s possible that Baldwin decided to delay his announcement out of respect for Clarke, as it surely would have stolen some of the spotlight from honoring the memory of Clarke.

Another, more concerning possibility, is that Duke got in Baldwin’s ear again in a last-ditch attempt to sway him. Trevor Keels, the Paul VI star guard who committed to Duke on April 2, was quoted recently as saying that he and his fellow incoming Duke freshmen were going to push hard to bring Baldwin in with them.

"AJ [Griffin] and Paolo [Banchero] was recruiting me and now all three of us about to go right at [Patrick Baldwin]. We definitely gonna get him. We gonna try to get him, said Keels on an Instagram Live after his college announcement. “We three-for-four right now man so we gotta get that four-for-four and we straight."

And then on Tuesday, John Watson, a writer for The Devil’s Den, 247Sports’ Duke basketball website, logged a crystal ball for Baldwin to Duke. While that surely sent a jolt of fear down the spines of much of the Georgetown fanbase, it’s important to note that the CB was logged with a confidence level of 5/10, meaning, the writer is not confident in his pick. And at this point in the recruitment, if no one has gotten a true read on where PBJ is headed, it’s hard to see an obscure Duke writer having the definitive scoop on where PBJ is headed.

However, one tidbit of information that does raise concern in this Georgetown fan’s mind is the fact that there have been whispers that Baldwin has contacted at least one high school recruit graphic page in the last day or two to request a commitment edit.

While it’s not known the exact time when Baldwin sent that request, the timing of that along with the crystal ball being logged for Duke is a little concerning. If there’s a commitment edit being made for PBJ, the guess here from a fellow graphic designer is that an announcement could be coming in the next 48-72 hours, reasonably speaking.

PBJ Watch has been an exhausting venture, but it’ll all be worth it if Baldwin Jr. picks the Hoyas. Even if he doesn’t, the fact that Georgetown went down to the wire with *DUKE* for a top-5 recruit should be taken as an extremely positive sign for how the Hoyas are viewed by top high school talent these days, and is a credit to the efforts of Patrick Ewing and his coaching staff.

Hang in there, Hoyas fans.