As much as I love Dave and value the impact he had in AJ signing, there's little chance we land this kid without Duane. Like you said, kids in this area do their homework and know Duane's backstory and ties to the area and UMD.
That is absolutely true, but Dave gets a lot of credit for this one too.
For a long time, there was a huge question of whether AJ was going to prep school or would sign somewhere else.
A lot of head coaches would've said "Screw it" and moved on, figuring the kid wasn't worth the hassle.
Dave gave the kid space to work through the process and time to make his decision.
AJ noted in his Tweet that Duane and Dave's "unconditional support" is one of the reasons he's coming to Mason.
That is an excellent reputation for our coaches to have and one that will pay dividends with other recruits.