2019 Top Prospect Nico Mannion Has A Date For An Official Visit To Marquette

Step 1: Become a nationally known prospect.

Step 2: Receive recruiting pitches from various schools.

Step 3: Trim your list to the schools that you’re serious about.

Step 4: Set up official visits.

Nico Mannion, a top 20 prospect in the Class of 2019, has reached Step 4. On Thursday, Mannion told Adam Zagoria that he has set up official visits to three of his four finalists.

They go as such:

Marquette: October 5-8
Villanova: October 11-13
Arizona: October 19-21

Mannion also told Zagoria that he’ll be taking an unofficial visit to Arizona on October 14th for the Red-White Game, which I presume is Arizona’s version of Midnight Madness. If that sounds a little goofy for Mannion to be in Philadelphia one day and on an unofficial in Tucson the next, remember that he attends high school in Phoenix, about two hours away.

The fourth team in Mannion’s final group is Duke, and Mannion has yet to arrange a date to visit Durham.

Here’s what Mannion had to say about the Golden Eagles:

“I talked to coach Stan Johnson [Wednesday] night for Marquette. And their pitch is to come in and you’ll have the ball in your hands. Their class is already rated the No. 1 offense in the country right now and most of their guys are returning the year I’ll be there if I were to go there. So he said I just could add to that. I’ll be the main decision-maker, the ball will be in my hands. It’s a situation where if I play well, we’ll win. And if not, we’ll lose, which is big for me because you gotta get used to that at some point. I really like their staff, and I have a good relationship with Stan Johnson. I really like how they pitch their program, it’s family-based. They play an up-tempo style, which is what I like, and they give their guards freedom.”

So, uh, the #1 offense in the country thing..... Is Marquette actually advertising that absurdly ridiculous BPI middle of the summer preseason ranking to recruits? I don’t think that’s the best idea in the universe.

The good news for Marquette is that Mannion will be in town for Marquette Madness on October 5th, as well as the open practice the next day. The relatively neutral news is that Mannion is visiting Marquette first. With that being the case, there’s essentially no chance that he commits while on his visit, or even any time soon thereafter. In fact, Mannion said in his interview with Zagoria that he wants to have everything settled by January, which is, of course, after the fall signing period. Even if he gets a visit to Duke set for sometime in October or early November, it seems that Mannion is leaning towards signing in the spring.

For what it’s worth, Mannion isn’t the only prospect with an official visit scheduled for that weekend. James Bishop, who is a top 200 prospect in the 2019 class, has also set up a trip to Milwaukee for that weekend. Presumably, they won’t be the only recruits visiting the McGuire Center, as Madness is a traditionally popular unofficial visit event.

Marquette projects to have two scholarships available for the fall of 2019. Here’s what the scholarship chart looks like right now.