Marquette Basketball Recruiting: A Very Busy Weekend

When four Class of 2017 players announced that they’d be taking official visits to Marquette during the month of September, we knew it was going to be a busy month for head coach Steve Wojciechowski and his staff. I don’t think anyone anticipated that any one particular weekend would get as nuts as this particular weekend is going to be.

#1 - Hasahn French is on his official visit.

French is a 6’7", 225 lb. power forward from New York, but he attends Commonwealth Academy in Massachusetts. 247 Sports has him as the #179 player in the class of 2017 in their Composite system, but #130 in their internal rankings. Either way, he’s a three star prospect, although he’s just barely outside the four star edge in the internal ranking.

He’s also got ridiculous length.

Marquette is the first of three visits for French, all of which will be in the month of September. He’ll follow up his trip to Milwaukee by heading out to take a look at Minnesota and Saint Louis on the last two weekends of the month.

#2 - Marquette is going to go see Tyler Herro today.

As a top 100 prospect who attends high school in the Milwaukee suburbs, Herro is a high priority recruit for Marquette in the class of 2018. Herro, who attends Whitnall High School in Greenfield, is a 6’3", 180 lb. shooting guard. 247 Sports marks him the #55 recruit in the class, but he’s gone as high as #25 in ESPN’s most recent rankings.

This is not the first time that someone from MU has made the short drive out to Greenfield to take a look at Herro, and almost assuredly will not be the last. Given that French is on his official visit this weekend, I would presume that this check-in will be done by Wojciechowski himself, but I can’t say that for certain because.....

#3 - Marquette is going to visit Jordan Nwora today.

As mentioned above, Marquette has four Class of 2017 prospects coming in for official visits this month. And yet, even though Steve Wojciechowski only has three scholarships left for next fall right now, he and/or his staff are still hot after Nwora, making sure they get out to see him on the very first day of the fall recruiting period.

Or, rather, they’re visiting Nwora’s parents for sure. Nwora’s from Buffalo, NY, but he attends Vermont Academy in..... wait for it..... Vermont. That’s a 6+ hour drive from Buffalo, and since VA started classes earlier this week, it’s entirely possible, if not actually likely that Nwora himself won’t even be at this visit. In fact, that’s exactly what Rivals’ Eric Bossi implies is happening.

Nwora is a 6’8", 220 lb. small forward. He’s a four star prospect right on the edge of the top 100. 247’s Composite system has him at #112, while their internal rankings has him at #90 and ESPN’s recently updated rankings has him at #91. Marquette offered him a scholarship back in April, and he took an unofficial visit in June.

UPDATE: Wojo himself was in Vermont at 7am CT this morning for a VA open gym.

.@VTAcademyHoops 6am open gym had head coaches from Washington, Butler, Creighton, Pitt, Marquette, Northwestern, Long Beach State & Colby.

— Adam Finkelstein (@AdamFinkelstein) September 9, 2016

It's apparently Nwora's birthday today, so either A) Wojo's going to make the trek to Buffalo to see his parents or B) Nwora's parents are coming to Vermont for his birthday and that "in-home" visit.

#4 - Theo John takes his final official visit.

Ok, so this one isn’t officially occupying any of Marquette’s time. However, John visited MU last weekend, and coming out of that visit, he said that he wants to make a decision within a month of his final visit. His visit this weekend is to Minnesota, his home town school. John, a 6’8", 210 lb. power forward in the class of 2017, attends Champlin Park High School, which is just a 30 minute drive from the Gophers’ gym.

At #178 in the 247 Sports Composite rankings, John is far from the highest ranked recruit that Marquette is after in his class. However, he fits a glaring need - big dudes - for the 2017-2018 roster and beyond. John also doesn’t seem to be too worried about contributing immediately on offense. Here’s two quotes from an interview with Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

"I'm looking to put myself in the best situation to play right away and have an impact because I feel like that's how I develop the best, just being thrown in the fire. That is something that attracts me to Marquette."

"I'm a hustle player; love defense. I take it personally when my man scores on me, so I kind of take that as an objective for each game to limit my man to the least amount of points. Really long; 7-4 wingspan. Offensive game is developing really fast. I'm a gym rat, so I'm always looking to improve."

With John taking his final visit, the clock officially starts running on waiting to hear some recruiting news with the fall signing period just two months away. Marquette has Ike Eke verbally committed, but still has three more spots left to fill.