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It's the summertime, which means that there's tons of grassroots basketball events. That means that there's tons of chances for recruiting gurus to get out and see lots of players at the same time. That means that we get updated recruiting rankings on a fairly regular basis.
On Wednesday morning, it was ESPN's turn to update their ranking of the top 60 recruits in the class of 2018. Marvin Bagley III, a power forward from Arizona is the #1 recruit in the country, according to The World Wide Leader, and he's followed up by Romeo Langford, Jordan Brown, Nazreon Reid, and Cameron Reddish to round out the top five.
But you're not here to learn about the top five, are you? You're here to learn about Marquette's involvement with the Class of 2018, right?
According to the information that I can wrangle up, head coach Steve Wojciechowski and his staff are involved on some level with nine of the players in ESPN's top 60. Six of them jumped out at me because we've previously mentioned them here on this site, while the other three are listed on Marquette's 247 page as a target.
If you're paying attention to recruiting, I'm sure you're annoyed with me at this point for not just cutting to the chase in regards to the two best recruits in the state of Wisconsin, Joey Hauser and Tyler Herro. Both guys are Marquette targets, and they're both in the top 50 of ESPN's 2018 list. Hauser, a power forward and the younger brother of Sam Hauser who will don #10 for MU this fall, comes in at #22, while Herro, a shooting guard who attends Whitnall High School in Greenfield, checks in at #46.
Hauser is not the highest ranked recruit that Wojo's got his eyes on, and Herro is not the lowest in the top 60. Here's the other seven dudes:
- Simi Shittu, PF, #11
- Jalen Smith, PF, #18
- Immanuel Quickley, PG, #19
- Cart'Are Gordon, PF, #24
Rechon Black, PG, #26- Kiyon Boyd, SF, #44
- Tre Jones, PG, #54
(Update, 9:41am: Rechon Black committed to North Carolina back in January, and it's probably helpful if I read the far right column on ESPN's list when I write these posts. H/T to @JasonElls for pointing it out.)
August 2018 is way too far away to say "Marquette has X number of scholarships remaining," but I will point out that MU will definitely have five scholarships open up between now and then: Luke Fischer, Jajuan Johnson, and Katin Reinhardt finish their eligibility this year, while Sandy Cohen, Andrew Rowsey, and Duane Wilson will wrap up their careers the year after that. Yes, that's six guys, but remember: Brendan Bailey is on his Mormon mission for the next two years and will join Marquette in the fall of 2018.