According to Mark Stewart of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee native Terrence Lewis will announce which college he will attend on Tuesday, August 9, at 5pm Central.
Terrence Lewis of Milw. Riverside & @WisconsinPGE to announce college choice 5 p.m. Tues. Marquette, UNLV, Illinois & Iowa State in the hunt
— Mark Stewart (@MarkStewartMJS) August 7, 2016
Lewis, a 6’5”, 180 lb. small forward, is rated as a four star prospect by the 247 Sports Composite system. He’s currently ranked as the #100 prospect in the country and the second best player in the state of Wisconsin behind Michigan commit Jordan Poole. Lewis was selected as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s 2015-16 prep player of the year as a junior after averaging 22.2 points, 9.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.8 steals while guiding Riverside University High School to an undefeated record in the City Conference. He ended up sharing conference player of the year honors with Milwaukee Washington senior Te’Jon Lucas, who will be attending Illinois this fall.
As we discussed recently, Lewis is somewhat of an important recruit for Marquette, not so much for what he brings to the program as a player, but more for what he represents within the state of Wisconsin. For each of the last four recruiting classes, and six out of the last eight, either the best or second best player in the state of Wisconsin has chosen to attend Marquette: Sam Hauser, Henry Ellenson, Sandy Cohen, Duane Wilson, Vander Blue, and Jeronne Maymon. (If you want to count Jamil Wilson instead of Maymon for that last class, feel free.) It’s probably a little early to talk about the class of 2018, but it’s safe to say that Steve Wojciechowski and his staff are very interested in both Joey Hauser and Tyler Herro. It’s a nice recruiting boon for the Marquette coaches to be able to go to any living room in the state and be able to say that “the best players in the state of Wisconsin pick Marquette.” Terrence Lewis choosing to attend college in his home town would continue that.
As far as Marquette’s interest in Lewis goes, things have kind of turned into a whirlwind. Wojo didn’t offer him a scholarship until July 18th, and Lewis included Marquette in his cut down to four schools on August 2nd. It’s not to say that MU has only suddenly gotten interested in a four star prospect that’s in their backyard. Lewis mentioned Marquette in an interview with Scout back in April, and while he didn’t provide any details on MU’s level of interest at the time, he did have this to say about what he was looking for in a college in an interview with the Champaign (IL) News-Gazette in July:
“I’d like go to a program to play right away,” Lewis said. “But if I have to come off the bench, I’ll just keep cheering on my teammates and try to be the best sixth man.”
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“It’s about picking the right school that best fits me,” Lewis said, “and if I go away from family, where I can find a family away from them.”
Given the speed at which Lewis is progressing, I can understand the reaction from loyal reader and Friend Of The Show @MarkKahnWI when tweeting at @AnonymousEagle to let us know about the announcement date:
@AnonymousEagle this doesn't bode well https://t.co/cBZmRfkDSs
— Mark Kahn (@MarkKahnWI) August 7, 2016
On one hand, I can agree with that. Given Marquette’s late entry to the situation, there does seem to be a certain amount of “well, he’s going to go with one of the other three schools.” This mindset would obviously be affected by Lewis making an unofficial visit to Iowa State this weekend as well.
The flip side of it is this: Maybe getting a scholarship offer from Marquette is what is propelling Lewis towards a decision. Given that Lewis didn’t make a cutdown until after MU made a spot available to him, it would seem that he may have been waiting to make a move until after that offer was made. If he wanted to get an offer from Marquette before trimming his list, then it stands to reason that being a Golden Eagle is a high priority for him. If that’s the case, then maybe Lewis just doesn’t want to worry about it any more and is ready to make his commitment to Wojo.
There’s a lot of different angles and factors at work here, as there is with any high school kid picking which college to attend, so I guess we’ll just have to wait until Tuesday to see what’s on Lewis’ mind.