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Back on Friday evening, Marquette women's basketball coach Carolyn Kieger posted this tweet.
So happy to announce Erika Davenport is the newest member of the Marquette family! The future is bright
— Carolyn Kieger (@ckieger) November 14, 2014
While I thought I was doing a pretty solid job staying on top of women's basketball recruiting, I didn't recognize this name as a previously committed recruit. So I did some Googling.
Erika Davenport attends Clarkston High School, which is about 45 minutes northwest of Detroit, Michigan. Last season, as a junior, the Associated Press named the six-foot forward the Class A Player of the Year, and yes, in case you were wondering, Class A is the division with the largest high schools in Michigan. Clarkston went 18-5 last season as Davenport averaged 22.3 points and 14.2 rebounds, flashing guard-like skills that she had been developing since she was just 5'6" as a freshman. Clarkston exited the Class A state tournament in the district finals, but the highlight of their three games was Davenport's 48 point, 23 rebound outing in their double overtime victory in the first game of the tournament.
So she's pretty good. ESPN lists Davenport as a three star prospect with a grade of 90. They mark her as the 16th best wing player in the country, but given that ESPN says the same thing about Milwaukee Riverside's Amani Wilborn, who is also signed to play at Marquette, that just might be their default for anyone not in the top 100 right now.
Scholarship offers were flying in over the summer, and it seemed possible that Davenport would end up waiting to sign, given her burgeoning attention. But Davenport decided that Marquette was the place for her, and committed to Coach Kieger and submitted her national letter of intent to Marquette as well.
Davenport is the fifth player to join Kieger's recruiting class for the fall of 2015. With four seniors leaving, this still leaves women's hoops three players under the NCAA's scholarship limit of 15 for next fall.