WRAL Sports Fan

Duke

2010 Duke commit Dawkins planning to enroll early

By Ryan Craig

Jul 16, 2009

Just weeks ago Duke fans were lamenting the loss of Elliot Williams and the resulting lack of depth at the guard position the team was likely to have during the 2009-2010 season.

Now, it seems like help is on the way in the form of Andre Dawkins, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard out of Atlantic Shores Christian Academy in Virginia.

Dawkins, the Blue Devils' star commit from its 2010 class, told WRAL Thursday afternoon that he is planning on heading to Durham, and that only a senior level English class standing in his way.

"As far as the NCAA goes, I have all of my core credits. I could enroll now, but I have to be graduated from high school", Dawkins said. "[My family and I] called [Duke assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski], and he looked at it, and he said that as far as the NCAA goes, I was good. Atlantic Shores said 'OK, as long as you finish English 12.'"

Dawkins has a midterm for that class tomorrow, and is confident that he will be able to pass without a problem.

"I'm trying to finish as soon as possible, but they have a certain limit on the number of assignments that you can turn in per week," said Dawkins. "I turn them in as quickly as I can, and as soon as I get them back I turn more in. I've gotten good grades on all of the assignments so far."

Contrary to popular belief, the thought of the athletic perimeter player enrolling early was not first brought up by the Duke coaching staff.

"We initiated the conversation," Dawkins said. "We saw that Elliot was transferring and thought 'they're only going to have two guards, that's kind of rough.' I was going to go to Hargrave [Military Academy] for a year, but seeing the situation they  were in, I just want to be able to help."

Dawkins' coach at Atlantic Shores, Bruce Croxton, has no doubt that his star player has the game and the brain to make the leap to college.

"You're talking about a kid that was another full year away, and now it's a few months," Croxton said. "I just wanted to make sure he wasn't overwhelmed, but he usually isn't overwhelmed by anything. There are no red flags at all - he's ready to go in and do his thing on and off the court."

"It will be an adjustment," Dawkins admitted, "but whether it's right now or a year from now, you can never really prepare yourself for something like that. For pretty much everyone it's something new, but I know it'll be a lot of hard work. I don't really see it as pressure as much as a great opportunity to play right away."

For now, the player Duke fans hope will be their third guard this fall is concentrating on his last high school class. Once that's over, the transition to the ACC can begin.

"They want me to come in and be confident in myself and confident in my abilities," Dawkins said. "They'll probably have a program for me to be on since I wasn't there over the summer. I feel like I can play with them, but pickup games and actual ACC games are different."