AJ Hoggard Picks Michigan State Over Marquette

A Marquette basketball recruiting option went off the board on Sunday, as Class of 2020 point guard AJ Hoggard announced his commitment to Michigan State. Hoggard recently completed an official visit to Marquette, and had also visited Providence, Ole Miss, and Florida.

Hoggard is listed as a 6’3”, 185 point point guard on his 247 Sports page. He’s ranked as the #71 prospect in the Class of 2020, and that makes him a four-star prospect. Hoggard plays a clear position of need for Marquette in the 2020 recruiting class, as head coach Steve Wojciechowski will be needing to replace Markus Howard on the roster. It’s pretty much a given that Howard will be Marquette’s all-time leading scorer by the end of the 2019-20 season, and the roster does not have any known and/or proven commodities at guard at this point in time.

While Hoggard would have filled a clear need for Marquette, as well as occupy one of the four remaining available scholarship spots and help bolster the roster, Hoggard opting for East Lansing over Milwaukee for college is hardly a real problem for the Golden Eagles. There’s the obvious “Hoggard should go where he feels most comfortable” item, of course, but MU has other and bigger irons in the 2020 fire.

RJ Davis was on an official visit to Marquette since Hoggard went on his visit, and you can make an argument that MU has Davis as more of a priority than Hoggard. After all, it can’t be a coincidence that Wojciechowski went to do a coaching clinic at Davis’ high school. The 5’11”, 164 pound combo guard from New York is currently ranked #57 in the country by 247 Sports. While Davis has North Carolina in his final four schools along with MU, Pitt, and Georgetown, the Tar Heels just snagged a commitment from Caleb Love, the #21 player in the class and the #4 point guard. Feels like that option might be off the table for Davis.

There’s also Dawson Garcia. The #30 prospect in the country recently included Marquette in his final seven schools, and has already taken a junior year official visit to Milwaukee. The 6’11”, 220 pound Minnesota native has already visited his home state Gophers officially as well as taking a trip to Memphis to see Penny Hardaway. It’s up in the air as to how seriously Garcia is considering Marquette, but it seems clear the Golden Eagles are very serious about him. Wojciechowski went up to Prior Lake to see Garcia since he announced his trimmed down list.

As mentioned earlier, Marquette has four scholarships sitting open for the Class of 2020. Justin Lewis and Osasere Ighodaro are already committed, but things did not shake out in MU’s favor since the season ended in terms of returning players. That’s why Tommy Gardiner was elevated from walk-on to scholarship player, and if that’s only a one year thing, then MU still has the ability to add four more guys for 2020-21.

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