Top 60 Prospect Kendra Gillispie Commits To Marquette

Earlier in the day on Sunday, I was thinking to myself, “Hey, we’re about a month away from the fall signing period for college basketball, I wonder if Marquette is going to get any new commitments between now and then.” That question went unanswered for maaaaaaaybe three hours, as Kendra Gillispie announced her commitment to MU women’s basketball and head coach Megan Duffy via this video.

It’s a pretty standard commitment video with a long list of thank yous to all the people that helped her along the way, although I did like the nice touch at the beginning of all the people (I presume some of them are Gillispie’s younger siblings from watching the video) giving reasons why Gillispie should pick one of the schools in her final five. It’s also got some highlight clips of her in there, and since this is her own production, then we can presume that these are what she sees as highlights that best show us what she can do on the court.

ESPN.com lists Gillispie as a 6’2” wing in the Class of 2021. Why do I go with The World Wide Leader for information here? Well, that’s because Gillispie has a recruiting page over thataway. This is particularly notable because ESPN has her ranked as the #58 player in the country. ESPN also says that Gillispie is the ninth best wing in her recruiting class as well as the #2 player coming out of the state of Oklahoma.

Yes, that’s right, Megan Duffy has added a top 60 prospect to the roster. Please remember: Duffy had her very first Marquette team in position to easily get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, and she did that with players that she inherited from Carolyn Kieger. Now she’s recruiting her own prospects and we’re jumping straight into the top 100 end of the pool? Seems good.

Blue Star Basketball still lists Gillispie as a commitment to Ole Miss, but she withdrew her verbal commitment to the Rebels back in early April of this year. First, let’s point out that Blue Star also lists Gillispie as the #54 prospect in the Class of 2021, thus lending credence to ESPN’s top 60 ranking for her. Second, we have to point out that Gillispie’s commitment does absolutely appear to be the work of new MU assistant coach Tony Greene. As we pointed out when Gillispie got her offer from Duffy, she withdrew her verbal to Ole Miss two days after head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin announced a replacement for Greene on the Rebels’ staff. Greene’s hiring at Marquette was announced on April 23rd, and less than three months later, Gillispie got her offer from MU.

So shouts to Coach Greene on getting that work in before he even ends up on the sideline for an actual game.

Gillispie led Norman High School to a state title in 2019 as a sophomore, averaging 20.8 points, 13.9 rebounds, and three blocks per game. She had 16 points and 15 rebounds in the title game, which seems pretty good. She transferred to Harding Charter Prep for her junior year, and her team went 22-8 this past season. I’d love to give you some details on her stats from HCP, but I can’t seem to find them. If you know where to look, shout it out in the comments section.

I don’t have any YouTube videos to embed, at least not any that are obvious to see. Gillispie does have a Hudl page, but there’s only two videos on there, and both are from her 2018-19 season.

Let’s head to the scholarship chart!

As you can see, Gillispie is the second verbal commitment for the Golden Eagles for the Class of 2021. Makiyah Williams was the first, making her pledge back in late April. That gives Duffy and her staff two six-footers to add to the roster, although it remains to be seen how they end up fitting into what the Golden Eagles do on the floor. With Selena Lott and Lauren Van Kleunen on the docket to wrap up their eligibility after the 2020-21 season, it would certainly look like it’s possible that Williams and Gillispie fit exactly into the overall roster composition spots that are opening up by the seniors’ departure.

Marquette still has two scholarships potentially available for the Class of 2021. They’re two spots short of the maximum for 2020-21, and so those spots are still open for 2021-22. As we mentioned at the top, we’re still a month away from the signing period, so there’s still lots of time to add more recruits to the class. Of course, with Chloe Marotta lined up to be the only senior in 2021-22, perhaps rolling those two scholarships through to the following year is the move to allow Duffy the opportunity to help balance out her recruiting classes a bit more. The class that was freshmen this past season is now up to six women with Antwainette Walker coming off her transfer redshirt season, and attempting to balance out that Class of 2023 problem would be a pretty solid way to handle the roster.