Duke signing gives it top recruiting class

Jaemyn Brakefield ,atop forward prospect, committed to Duke on Friday, giving the Blue Devils the No. 1 recruiting class, according to 247sports.com’s rankings.

Rated a four-star recruit by 247sports and a five-star prospect by ESPN, the 6foot-8 Brakefield of Huntington, W. Va., gives Duke another post player for its 2020 class, joining 6-8 Jalen Johnson and 6-7 Henry Coleman.

Duke remains in the running for another post player, 7-1 Mark Williams. Now playing at IMG Academy in Florida, the four-star Williams named Duke among his three finalists along with Michigan and UCLA this week.

Amateur coach Merl Code was sentenced to three months in prison for his role in the college basketball bribery scheme that sought to steer impressionable NBA-bound athletes toward fledgling money managers and handlers. On Thursday, former aspiring sports business manager Christian Dawkins was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

St. Thomas, soon to be ousted from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference because of its dominance of smaller schools in its longtime Division III home, received an invitation to join the Summit League in Division I. The university submitted a request to the NCAA for a waiver of the reclassification rules that would allow it to bypass Division II. If granted, St. Thomas would become the 10th member of the Summit League, however the Tommies would then have to find a different conference for their football and men’s and women’s hockey teams, sports not sponsored by the Summit League . ... Alabama freshman forward Juwan Gary is expected to miss the season after knee surgery.