Karim Mane Will Take An Official Visit To Marquette

I feel like we skipped a step around here at some point.

On Thursday, the ever knowing Jake Weingarten let loose the news that highly touted Canadian basketball prospect Karim Mane would be taking an official visit to Marquette in January. I’m not sure that I ever saw that Marquette had officially offered Mane a scholarship, but if he and Marquette are both using one of their limited number of official visits, then I presume that the offer has officially been made.

Weingarten says “January 3rd” for the visit, but essentially that means that Mane will be in Milwaukee when Steve Wojciechowski and the Golden Eagles host Villanova on January 4th. Weingarten also reported that an assistant visited Mane on October 23rd. We know that Jake Presutti was in Michigan for a visit on the same day, so I’m guessing it was Dwayne Kilings in Quebec to see Mane.

247 Sports lists Karim Mane as a 6’4”, 195 pound combo guard in the Class of 2020. The Composite system says that he is a three-star prospect and is ranked #129 in the class. We have to say “in the class” because Mane is from Canada.

HOWEVER......

The 247 Sports internal system says that Mane is ranked #25 in the recruiting class. That makes him a five star prospect and the #5 combo guard in the class. That’s definitely better than #129.

HOWEVER.......

Mane might not end up in college. As our friends at Testudo Times, SB Nation’s Maryland blog, point out, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony has Mane slotted as a first round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Yes, that is the NBA Draft in between right this second and when Mane would in theory enroll at Marquette or wherever else he might end up. Because Mane will be 19 before January 1st, 2020, and because he’s not from the United States, he would be eligible for selection in the NBA Draft in June 2020. As always, I would personally advise someone who would be a first round NBA Draft pick to take the guaranteed contract that comes with it and worry about everything else later on, but everyone has to make their own decisions.

At the end of the day, if he’s taking an official visit in January, I presume that means he’s leaning towards college. I’m not sure if there’s a deadline to declare for Mane or whatever, but the point is to keep the NBA Draft eligibility in the back of your head for now while you’re considering Mane potentially attending Marquette.

Here’s a couple of two minute long videos for you, one from April 2019 and the other from May 2019.

As things stand right now, Marquette has four open and available scholarships for the Class of 2020. Yes, that is after we take the commitments of Justin Lewis and Osasere Ighodaro into account. For the time being, it appears that Marquette’s only serious prospects for the Class of 2020 are Mane and top 30 big man Dawson Garcia. That’s... not... particularly great, but adding six freshmen at once is also not great. It’s not a particularly fun situation for Steve Wojciechowski and his staff to be in, but that’s the way it goes.

Here’s what the scholarship situation looks like right now.