Theo John’s Visit To Marquette Is Over. Now What?

Theo John is a power forward in the high school graduating class of 2017. 247 Sports lists him at 6’8", and 210 lbs. Their composite system has him as a four star prospect, but because of the depth of the 2017 class, he’s ranked #137 in the country.

He visited Marquette this past weekend.

It’s Labor Day today, the Monday following John’s visit to Milwaukee and the Al McGuire Center. Here’s what’s next.

Item #1: Waiting.

John has a visit to Minnesota, his home town team, scheduled for next weekend. Presumably, he’s not going to make any announcements until after that visit. He visited California last weekend, leaving him two official visits available. John listed a top six of the three schools he’s visiting, plus Oklahoma, Illinois, and Purdue. While he has not announced any other visits (as far as I know), it’s entirely possible that he could end up visiting at least two of that second group. That would prolong the waiting period a bit as well. Which is fine.

Item #2: Not Worrying About It.

Generally speaking, I think this applies to all recruiting matters. Head coach Steve Wojciechowski and his assistants are going to identify the players that 1) they think are the best fit for Marquette and 2) have the natural abilities that can be maximized by the particular coaching talents of the staff. If you really get caught up in the decision making processes of 17 or 18 year olds, you’re really just causing yourself way too much stress.

Worrying about one particular player is more than a little ridiculous, and that’s ramped up a little bit in the scenario facing Marquette. Here’s what Marquette’s current scholarship situation looks like.

You’ll notice that for right now, Marquette has three open scholarship spots for the fall of 2017. Theo John is one of four Class of 2017 players expected to visit the McGuire Center in the month of September with top 200 power forward Hasahn French arriving in town this coming Friday.

You’ll also notice at this point that four (the number of recruits visiting) is higher than three (the number of available scholarships). Sure, things can happen between now and next fall. The Vidiians could arrive on Earth and steal Sandy Cohen’s lungs or any number of both very real and very unreal possibilities could transpire.

But, taking an optimist’s point of view (and a realist’s, since the Vidiians aren’t real (probably)), there’s only going to be three spots available with four guys currently vying for them. At least for now, there’s no reason to get particularly jumpy about a lack of news coming out of Champlin Park about what John is or is not thinking about doing for his collegiate experience.