And so, today is the official public beginning of the Marquette basketball season, as Marquette Madness will take place tonight at the Al McGuire Center on campus. There’s going to be introductions for both the men’s and the women’s team, a shooting contest of some sort where students will be able to join MU players and win an Xbox or an iPad a dunk contest, various giveaways of various prizes, and of course, a concert by B.o.B.

If you’re not a Marquette student, though, you’re not going to be in attendance and none of that means anything to you. The more important aspect of Madness at this point for us non-student types is what recruits are going to be at the event.

This is an unofficial list, by the way, and if you catch wind of someone not on the list at Madness, please mention it in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter or by email at anon.eagle@gmail.com.

We’re going to sort these by recruiting classes going from older to younger, as there’s a certain amount of priority to the whole deal here. I know it’s going to come as a shock to you, but there will not be any 2019 prospects at Madness. Marquette has one scholarship projected to be available and essentially no real prospects on a home for it.

Here’s what the scholarship chart looks like so you know what Marquette is aiming to do with each recruiting class.

Class of 2020

Zeb Jackson

Well, we have to start here, as Jackson is taking an official visit to Marquette this weekend.

Now, in the past, this would be a fantastic bit of news for MU. However, the NCAA passed new legislation over the summer, and recruits can now take five official visits during their junior year and five official visits during their senior year. This is a junior year visit for Jackson, and if I’m not mistaken, the first junior year official visit for Marquette since the new rules went into effect. It’s still a big deal that Jackson is spending one of his five this year on MU, and it’s a big deal that Marquette is spending one of their NCAA limited official visits on him, but we’re still over a year away from Jackson being able to sign a letter of intent.

Marquette offered Jackson a scholarship back in July, and he cut his list to a final seven a couple of weeks ago. The Ohio native is a 6’2”, 160 pound shooting guard, and is ranked #66 in the class by 247 Sports’ Composite system.

Jamari Sibley

This will be the second straight Marquette Madness for Sibley.

Marquette offered a scholarship to Sibley back in May of this year. The 6’8”, 200 pound power forward has established himself as a notable name in the class, as he’s ranked #99 in the country by 247 Sports’ Composite system as they have started to rank players in that class. He’s also the second best player in the state of Wisconsin for the Class of 2020, and we will get to that aspect of things more in a second.

Carter Gilmore

Gilmore is a 6’7”, 200 pound prospect from Hartland, Wisconsin, who attends Arrowhead High School. He does not have a 247 Sports rating or ranking, but he does have a page. Said page shows him with offers from Brown, DePaul, UIC, Southern Illinois, and UWM, but not Marquette. I’m not entirely sure how attached Marquette is to Gilmore and vice versa, but he was part of the Phenom University team unofficial visit to Marquette back in June.

Jalen Johnson

If that name sounds familiar to you, well, there’s a reason for that. Johnson is the guy ranked in front of Jamari Sibley in the Wisconsin state rankings, and, uh, well, he’s WAY in front of Sibley. 247 Sports currently has Johnson as the #5 player in the country and the second best small forward behind Florida’s Scottie Barnes. Marquette has had an offer out to Johnson since June 2017, back when he was attending Sun Prairie High School. He’ll be teaming up with Sibley at Nicolet High School in the northern Milwaukee suburbs starting this year, as both Johnson and his younger brother have transferred.

Dawson Garcia

There’s a lot of names in that tweet from the Marquette Wire’s Executive Sports Editor, so try to remember them as we keep going past Garcia in a moment.

Garcia is a 6’10”, 200 pound power forward, hailing from Prior Lake, Minnesota. He’s currently the #29 player in the Class of 2020, and that’s amazingly impressive. Not just because he’s a top 30 kid, but because of how far he’s come since Marquette first made contact with him in June. He went from unranked in 247’s Composite system to #55 in the country when MU offered him a scholarship shortly thereafter all the way up to #29 now, just four months later.

Class of 2021

Kobe Johnson

Remember a little bit earlier when I mentioned that Jalen Johnson’s younger brother had transferred to Nicolet High School with him? Well, this is his younger brother.

His 247 Sports page still has him at Sun Prairie, and it lists him as a 6’1”, 150 pound point guard. This article from WSN in late July on the Johnson boys transferring lists him at 6’1”, so we’ll trust that as up-to-date, or as least as up-to-date as you can get when you’re talking about high schoolers and growth spurts.

The only other info on Johnson’s 247 Sports page is an offer from DePaul. 247 Sports is only ranking Class of 2021 players out to #31 in the country right now, so the fact that he doesn’t have any ratings or rankings right now is merely how things go around here.

DJ Hughes

The 6’7”, 200 pound power forward from Indianapolis has Kobe Johnson beat in a couple of categories. First, he has a picture on his 247 Sports page, which is a nice detail. He also has a more impressive list of interests, garnering attention from Butler, Indiana, Purdue, and Xavier already. No offers are listed, but hey: it’s still early.

Here’s a highlight video from February 2017 on Hughes, but be realistic about what you’re watching here: An eighth grader well over 6 feet tall dominating other eighth graders.