Duke Recruiting: A Look At Miikka Muurinen

06.08.2024 16:00

VALENCIA, SPAIN - JULY 06: Miikka Muurinen #24 of Finland in action during Semi Finals of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament match between Finland and Spain at Pabellon Fuente de San Luis on July 06, 2024 in Valencia, Spain. | Photo by Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images

This one will be a race to the Finnish

There are always recruits who sort of come out of nowhere and dazzle people relatively late.

Miikka Muurinen looks like he might be one of those.

There will always be room in the game for hugely talented, dominant post players. The next Shaquille O’Neal will not have to be positionless. The rest of the world?

Yeah, you'd better.

And Muurinen looks like one of those guys.

A native of Finland, Muurinen came to the US in 2023 to play for Sunrise Christian. Now he’s transferred to Arizona Compass Prep in Chandler. That means that Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd is no doubt keeping a close eye on him as is ASU’s Bobby Hurley.

He’s currently 6-10 and, not surprisingly, lean. But he’s an excellent shooter which opens up he rest of his game. He’s really smart too and has solid all-round skills - kind of ideal for positionless basketball.

He is also apparently quite a worker and the increased competition he’ll see in the US will only help him, but his international play will also help.

For Duke, he’d fit right into the stretch four tradition. Just consider who has filled that role for the Blue Devils: Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Roshown McLeod, Shane Battier, Mike Dunleavy, Luol Deng, Kyle Singler and Kyle Filipowski to name a few - and Cooper Flagg is on deck.

Check out the videos posted below. He looks like he'd fit right in.

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