Dawson Garcia Includes Marquette In His Final Seven Schools

One of the big outlaying questions of the Class of 2020 recruiting for Marquette men’s basketball got answered on Tuesday. Dawson Garcia, the #30 prospect in the class, released what he is calling a “top 7” schools, and included Marquette in the group. The Golden Eagles are joined by Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Memphis, Minnesota, and North Carolina.

If you prefer the still photo version, Tipton Edits was more than happy to provide it.

Let’s wind our way back to Garcia’s details and then move forward.

247 Sports lists Garcia as a 6’11”, 220 pound center, hailing from Prior Lake, Minnesota. He is currently ranked #30 in the Class of 2020 by 247’s Composite system, and that rates him as a four-star prospect. Here’s where things get a little weird: 247 says he’s the #4 power forward in the country, even though they still list him as a center in his info section. He’s also the #2 player in the state of Minnesota, trailing only fellow Marquette prospect Jalen Suggs.

The question as to whether he’s a power forward or a center is kind of an important one, given that Marquette is in his final seven grouping. There was a certain school of thought — a reasonable one, I think — that estimated that Marquette’s commitments from Osasere Ighodaro and Justin Lewis would remove the Golden Eagles from Garcia’s consideration. After all, Ighodaro and Lewis are the #11 and #12 power forwards in the class respectively. However, I could easily see head coach Steve Wojciechowski and his staff pitching Garcia on playing an interchangeable 3-4-5 combo with those two guys.

After all, this is what Garcia looks like on the floor:

That’s from this past May. Remember: He’s listed at 6’11”. Somehow I think he can play with Ighodaro and Lewis. Wojciechowski and his staff can figure it out.

Then again, this all might be moot, as Garcia has his fair share of high profile programs to pick from even if you ignore Marquette. Heck, if he had cut down to a final three of Arizona, North Carolina, and Kansas, no one would have blinked. The lure of staying home is there, which is why Minnesota’s on the list. Memphis looks primed and ready to explode under Penny Hardaway, so you can see why he’d want to end up there.

I have no solid reason for his interest in Indiana, but hey: It’s Indiana.

Marquette offered a scholarship to Garcia back in June of 2018, when he was “only” ranked #55 in the country, and he’s added an inch and 20 pounds since then. He’s also already been on an official visit to Marquette, as he took advantage of the new rule that lets juniors take visits. He was on hand when Marquette beat Villanova for National Marquette Day. Seems like that could have left a good impression on him. Garcia had already taken visits to Texas and Baylor at that point, and you’ll notice that they did not make the cut.

Since Garcia has already taken one official visit, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him not visit MU during his senior season. If you see a visit list for him pop up and MU’s not on it, remember that he’s been here once already, and he may be smartly using his visits to make sure he sees all of his finalists instead.

Marquette is presumably far from done when it comes to recruiting in 2020. Following Ighodaro’s commitment, MU still has four projected available scholarship spots, at least that’s if Tommy Gardiner’s boost up from walk-on to scholarship player only lasts one season. MU will host three players — RJ Davis, AJ Hoggard, and Zed Key — for official visits before the month of September is done. In fact, Hoggard’s official visits was scheduled to start today, September 17th.

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