Meek to Sign With Blue Devils

San Pasqual High center Erik Meek will sign a letter of intent today to play basketball for Duke University, sources said.

The Raleigh News and Observer was reporting in today’s editions that Meek will attend Duke, which has made the NCAA Final Four four of the past five years under Coach Mike Krzyzewski.

An anonymous source close to Meek said Tuesday night: “I certainly wouldn’t doubt those sources.”

Meek, San Diego County’s most heavily recruited basketball player since Bill Walton, will make it official today at a press conference scheduled for 1 p.m. in San Pasqual’s gym. Today is the first day of the NCAA’s early signing period.

Earlier in the fall, Meek narrowed his choices to Kansas, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Duke. He took recruiting trips to each campus, with Duke being his final visit last weekend.

Rumors circulated last month that Meek would not attend Duke because Cherokee Parks of Huntington Beach’s Marina High made a verbal commitment to the Blue Devils. But San Pasqual Coach Tom Buck said that Meek, 6-10, could play with Parks, 6-11, and that the two players would most likely play different positions.

Parks, who played with Meek in a summer league two years ago, said Tuesday he hadn’t heard that Meek would be joining him at Duke, but was happy with the news.

“He’s a great player,” Parks said. “I don’t think we’d have a problem playing together. I think he’s more of an inside player, and I’m more of a forward-center type. He’s just a lot stronger than me inside. I think we’ll have a really good team next year.”

Meek, who averaged 28.5 points and 12.5 rebounds as a junior and has been a two-time Times All-County selection, began getting letters as early as the ninth grade from colleges and regularly had coaches such as UCLA’s Jim Harrick and Arizona’s Lute Olson at his practices.