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Duke recruiting and alumni news

Duke might get some help on the perimeter a year sooner than expected.

Andre Dawkins, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound shooting guard ranked among the nation's top high school juniors, is expected to be cleared by the NCAA to enroll at Duke this season, according to multiple Internet reports that all cite anonymous sources.

Scout.com ranks Dawkins No. 3 in the nation among shooting guards and No. 22 overall. An athletic long-range shooter, Dawkins averaged 22 points per game last season at Atlantic Shores Christian school in Virginia Beach. He had reportedly planned to play his senior season at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia while waiting to attend Duke.

Dawkins transferred to Atlantic Shores after completing his freshman year at Deep Creek High in Virginia. At the time of his transfer, his family requested he remain classified as a freshman.

So although he has finished four years of high school with a 3.2 grade-point average and scored well on standardized tests, he has not graduated.

Dawkins is reportedly taking courses this summer to get his diploma and speed his enrollment at Duke.

If he makes the grade and the NCAA approves, Dawkins could make an immediate impact with the Blue Devils. With star junior Gerald Henderson gone early to the NBA and freshman Elliot Williams gone home to Memphis to be closer to his sick mother, Duke had just two guards on its roster at the start of the week: rising senior Jon Scheyer and rising junior Nolan Smith.

Another guard, rising sophomore Seth Curry, will sit out the season after transferring to Duke after a stellar freshman season at Liberty.

ON THE ALUMNI FRONT, Robert Brickey, who played in three Final Fours during his career at Duke, has taken an assistant coaching job with the N.C. Central men's team after spending last season as an assistant with the Duke women's team.

Brickey was the head coach of the Shaw men's team for three seasons but was fired at the end of the 2007-'08 season.

Brickey has also held assistant coaching jobs with the men's teams at James Madison, SMU and Army.

-- JEFF MILLS, Staff Writer