Atlantic Shores star headed to Duke early

Atlantic Shores basketball standout Andre Dawkins won't be returning for his senior year. Instead, he'll participate in freshman orientation Tuesday at Duke University.

Dawkins, a 6-foot-4 guard, finalized his college plans on Thursday after he earned the final credit he needed to graduate.

"It's kind of surreal," said Dawkins, who will receive his high school diploma today. "College seemed so far off because I had another year to go. But it kind of came on real fast."

Dawkins, 17, played his first year of high school basketball at Deep Creek, then played the past three seasons - repeating his freshman year - at Atlantic Shores.

Dawkins is regarded as one of the top players in the class of 2010. ESPN rated him the No. 2 shooting guard in the country and the No. 10 overall prospect. Another recruiting site ranked him No. 3 at shooting guard and No. 22 overall. The two-time All-Tidewater player had offers from Georgetown, Clemson, Maryland, Florida and Wake Forest, among others.

Dawkins began thinking seriously about by passing his senior year in June when Duke guard Elliot Williams transferred to Memphis. Reports circulated in July that Dawkins had decided to enroll early, but at that point his father said the news was "premature."

"We were like, 'Well, they only have two guards now,'" said Dawkins' father, also named Andre. "I ran the question by him and asked him, 'If you could go now, would you want to?' And he thought about it and said yes. So we put in a call to the Duke coaches and they became excited about the possibility."

The decision became even easier when Dawkins found out he had all of his core credits required by the NCAA Clearinghouse. All he needed was to pass English 12.

He received extra motivation through the process from Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

"He called the other day and asked me how everything was going and how the English class was going," Dawkins said. "They're all very excited to have me come down this year. Seeing it happen and seeing everything go through smoothly has been exciting."

But what about playing in the ACC for one of the top programs in the country?

"I'm not thinking about minutes or anything like that," he said. "I'm just going down there trying to be the best basketball player that I can be. If they think I can play major minutes, then so be it. I just want to continue to improve my game."

Before leaving for Duke, Dawkins will celebrate his graduation with family and friends.

"We're extremely proud of him," his father said. "We feel like the sky's the limit if he continues to work hard and do well. And just getting an education from Duke is a great accomplishment."

Dawkins averaged 20.5 points per game last season and helped lead the Seahawks to the Division II state private-school final. He and teammate Steven Pledger were named first-team All-Tidewater. Dawkins and Pledger, who will play at Oklahoma this season, have talked about facing each other in college.

"That would be a lot of fun, but that would probably have to be in the NCAA tournament," Dawkins said. "So that would be bittersweet."

Larry Rubama, (757) 446-2273, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com