It could be a big week for Golden Eagle recruiting. A couple of Marquette's top targets of the early recruiting period are set to announce decisions in the next few days.
Rodney Hood, a 6'8" forward from Meridian, MS, will likely announce a decision tomorrow. Hood is seen as kind of a long shot for MU, but he did take an official visit earlier in the month. Along with Marquette, Mississippi State, Alabama, Florida State and of course Louisville (who seems to be in on every 6'8" small forward) are all reportedly in the mix for Rodney's services.
Nick Faust, a 6'5" guard from Baltimore, MD, is slated to announce his decision on ESPNU on Thursday. For a good portion of the summer and fall Marquette and Maryland appeared to be front-runners for Nick. Villanova and Florida State have been said to be in the mix as well. Recently the rumor was that Faust had dropped MU from consideration and that Kansas and Memphis were now getting consideration. Who knows what is or isn't true regarding all these rumors? What I do know is that Faust is a talented player who can really "score the basketball," and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Lastly, Mike Shaw, a 6'8" power forward from Chicago (and Mr. McCarter's dream recruit), appears to have opted against waiting until spring to make a decision and will reportedly be making his decision this Thursday as well. Shaw was on hand for Marquette Madness a couple weeks ago and was rumored to be one of the top priorities -- if not THE top priority -- for Buzz Williams and Co. Word back then was that Shaw may not decide until the spring, but now it appears that is not the case. Rumors trickling out from the Chicago Sun Times, and other sources, is that Shaw will choose Illinois over MU and DePaul. Again, I will still be keeping my fingers crossed.
As always, I acknowledge that all of this is purely speculation and rumor that is being floated out there on the interwebs, and that just because a player is rated in the top 50 by a recruiting service does not in any way guarantee future success. But bringing in new talent is vital to a program's continued success. And besides that, it's just plain fun to talk about.