Marquette Basketball Recruiting: Notes On Joey Hauser, Race Thompson, Jarvis Thomas, Quentin Grimes, and Jaedon LeDee

Marquette men’s basketball recruiting for the class of 2018 is going to be fascinating to watch over the next seven months until those prospects are eligible to sign letters of intent in November. As things stand right now, Marquette has two open scholarships for the fall of 2018, but head coach Steve Wojciechowski has some major irons in the fire to fill those two spots.

Let’s start with Joey Hauser, who has to be regarded as Marquette’s primary target for 2018. The Stevens Point standout is a top 40 recruit, perhaps even top 25 depending on who you ask, and the clear choice as the best prospect in the state of Wisconsin.

The younger brother of current Golden Eagle Sam Hauser is also getting a lot of national attention, as you might expect. Michigan State is very interested in the younger Hauser, as is Virginia according to an interview he did with Marquette Wire’s John Steppe on April 1st. And then there’s Monday’s development, which probably shouldn’t be very surprising.

If you think about how Notre Dame plays under the direction of Mike Brey, it’s not even slightly surprising to find out that the Irish are interested in the services of Hauser. And then there’s this note as well, again from Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook’s Mark Miller:

Wisconsin’s interest in the top prospect in the state should not be a shock to anyone, but it’s worth pointing out.

Moving onto more Marquette oriented items, we have this note on Steve Wojciechowski’s schedule this week from Fox Sports Big East insider Evan Daniels:

Marquette has two open scholarships for 2018 right now and Wojo is visiting four non-Hauser 2018 prospects in a 48 hour stretch. I point this out because if you click through on the Mark Miller tweets up above, you’ll see responses to Miller referring to Hauser to MU as “a lock.” This is an absurd position to take, particularly since Wojo’s own behavior indicates that is not even remotely close to true at this point.

The pursuit of Race Thompson and Jaedon LeDee is particularly relevant to Hauser’s status with Marquette. Thompson is a 6’8” 200 lb. power forward from Minnesota, who is ranked #62 in the class of 2018 according to 247 Sports’ Composite system, while LeDee is 6’8”, 213 lb. and ranked #57. In other words, fairly similar to Hauser, who is 6’8”, 200 lb. and ranked #26. There’s nothing to say that these guys couldn’t play with Hauser, of course, but it is notable that Wojo and his staff are going after guys who would, in theory, be capable of playing a similar role as Hauser.

Jarvis Thomas and Quentin Grimes present a slightly different avenue of what direction Marquette is heading in for the fall of 2018. Thomas is listed as a 6’6”, 225 lb., power forward by 247 Sports, but he has no star rating or ranking listed. Maybe that changes rapidly over the summer as top 100 lists become top 150 lists, but that remains to be seen. Grimes, on the other hand, has a chance to be Marquette’s second McDonald’s All-American under the direction of Wojciechowski, as 247 Sports lines him up as the #17 recruit in the class of 2018. He’s a 6’4, 175 lb., point guard from The Woodlands, Texas, and given the current projection for the roster composition in November 2018, getting Grimes to attend Marquette might be much more important than doing the same for Joey Hauser.

Of course, given the competition — Arizona, Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky are all recruiting Grimes — that may be easier said than done.