It’s been exactly a week since the Marquette men’s basketball roster and recruiting situation got shaken up in a big way when Sam Hauser and Joey Hauser announced that they would be transferring out of the program. Their departure leaves head coach Steve Wojciechowski with two newly empty scholarship spots for 2019-20 as well as an extra empty spot in 2020-21 that he wasn’t expecting to have.

Here’s what the scholarship picture looks like right now, just so we’re all on the same page here.

Since the Hauser departure, a whole bunch of recruiting stuff has popped out of the woodwork. This really has more to do with the live recruiting period starting than with losing two players from the roster, but if we’re going to criticize the coaching staff for whatever breakdown happened with the Hausers in the past, then we have to tip our cap to them for hitting the ground running to start working on the future.

We’re going to run down three guys with individual notes in alphabetical order and then wrap up with a trio of dudes who will be seeing someone from the MU staff today.

Jabri Abdur-Rahim

Jabri Abdur-Rahim is listed by 247 Sports as a 6’5”, 185 pound small forward. Born in Mountain View, California, he attends Blair Academy in New Jersey...... where he spent this past year as teammates with soon-to-be Marquette freshman Dexter Akanno. 247’s Composite system says he’s a four-star prospect in the Class of 2020, where he’s ranked #58 overall. He’s the 16th best small forward and the second best player in the state of New Jersey.

I count seven guys ahead of Abdur-Rahim on the 247 Small Forwards list that have already received a scholarship offer from Marquette, including top man Jalen Johnson. I’m going to go ahead and declare that Wojciechowski has identified this as a “position of need” for 2020-21.

Abdur-Rahim appears to already have offers from Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Georgetown, Kansas, Michigan State, and Seton Hall amongst a whole pile of others. I’m sure you’re wondering about this right now, and yes, he is the son of 12 year NBA veteran and current NBA G League president Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

Here’s a video package of a Blair Academy game with the focus being Abdur-Rahim scoring 30 points in an event in Philadelphia. He’s wearing #23, while Akanno is wearing #3.

Johnny Davis

Davis is listed as a 6’4”, 185 pound shooting guard by 247 Sports. His offers as mentioned by the illustrious Mr. Miller include DePaul, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

The Composite system marks Davis as a three-star prospect and ranks him at #171 in the class of 2020. That part of the page says he’s a combo guard, where he ranks #14 nationally. He’s the #4 prospect in the state of Wisconsin, trailing behind Jalen Johnson, Jamari Sibley, and his brother Jordan.

It’s worth mentioning that this is just “getting involved” which is a rough equivalent to “has called on the phone” and isn’t anything more than that.

something something wojciechowski something brother from wisconsin something something

Justin Lewis

Let’s play a little Chronological Order here....

Okay, here’s what I think I know. Andre Jackson goes to school (and therefore lives) in Albany, New York. Justin Lewis goes to school (and therefore lives) in Baltimore, Maryland. I’m not saying that the Marquette staff couldn’t have made both visits on the same day. There’s four of them, y’know? I am saying, however, that I am very confused about the timing of all of this. It’s unlikely that Wojciechowski went to visit both guys, right? Probably? Maybe not?

ANYWAY

Marquette offered a scholarship to Lewis back in late July of 2018. At the time, he was a four star prospect according to 247 Sports and ranked #138 in the country. The 6’7”, 225 pound Lewis is now allllll the way up to #132, so that’s exciting. Also exciting is the fact that Marquette is in his top 10, along with Connecticut, Tennessee, Maryland, Purdue, Seton Hall, UCF, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia. I am very curious about the Virginia Tech aspect of this, given that Mike Young has only been on the job for two weeks.

Dain Dainja, Jalen Suggs, and Dawson Garcia

Look, I’m just going to say it this way: If Marquette only reels in these three guys and that’s it for the Class of 2020, I’m calling it a win. Right now, all three are ranked in the top 60 in the country with Suggs at #10, Garcia at #30, and Dainja at #51. They’re the three best players in the state of Minnesota, and at combo guard, power forward, and center respectively, the combination of skills involved would go a long long way towards restocking the cupboard for Marquette in the fall of 2020.

Suggs has been a Marquette target for a very long time now, but the Golden Eagles aren’t particularly fighting for his attention with other basketball schools so much as they are fighting with football schools. He’s a five-star prospect in basketball, but he’s also a four-star quarterback prospect as well.

Garcia and Dainja picked up offers from Marquette in late June of 2018. They have both rocketed up the recruiting ranking charts since then. I don’t know if that’s luck or savvy evaluation on the part of the MU coaching staff, but it’s definitely not a bad thing.