Milwaukee’s Jamari Sibley Has Marquette In His Top 10

The recruiting news cycle never really stops, and so it’s time for Marquette to appear on a top 10 list for a Class of 2020 prospect. On Wednesday evening, Jamari Sibley included the Golden Eagles on his list, along with [deep breath] Florida, Georgetown, Iowa, Iowa State, Maryland, Minnesota, South Carolina, Syracuse, and Wake Forest.

Sibley is listed by 247 Sports as a 6’8”, 200 pound power forward. He’s ranked #80 in the country in the Class of 2020 according to their Composite system, which makes him a four-star prospect. He’s the #13 power forward in the class, trailing behind fellow Marquette prospects Dawson Garcia (#28 overall in the country) and PJ Hall (#65).

As the #2 prospect in the state of Wisconsin, it would be a relatively big deal for Marquette to bring Sibley into the fold. Jalen Johnson, the top prospect in the state and the #3 player in the country, has already trimmed his list to a top four that includes Wisconsin, but not Marquette. However, the Badgers are a clear #4 out of 4 there behind Duke, Kentucky, and Arizona. You’ll notice that Sibley does not have Wisconsin in his top 10 even though Greg Gard presumably spent a whole bunch of time watching him play this past year, as Johnson and Sibley played together at Nicolet High School. Presuming that Johnson takes advantage of the blue bloods that are knocking down his door, that would mean yet another year where neither of the top two players in the state pick the big time state school coming directly out of high school.

It’s been a little bit over a year since Marquette offered Sibley a scholarship. That offer came as a one-two recruiting punch with an offer to Reece Beekman, who plays on the same club team as Sibley as well as Jalen Johnson. Sibley’s Nicolet squad went 27-1 this past season and captured the WIAA Division 2 state title in March, with Sibley going for a team high 23 points in the title game, along with nine rebounds, two assists, a steal, and two blocks in the title game. MaxPreps doesn’t have stats for every game, but in the 24 games they do list stats for, Sibley averaged 19.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.8 steals.

Here’s a sophomore year highlight reel for Sibley, back before Johnson transferred to Nicolet:

And here’s a reel of clips from his club play in summer 2018:

With Sacar Anim, Markus Howard, Jayce Johnson, and Ed Morrow coming off the books in the spring of 2020, Marquette looks to have at least four scholarships open and available the following fall. There are currently two sitting open and available, although one of those will be taken up by Symir Torrence, regardless of whether he stays in the Class of 2020 or comes in as part of the Class of 2019. In either case, MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski could have as many as five scholarships to play with for 2020, and Sibley could be a very big piece of the puzzle for the Golden Eagles going forward.

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