Summer always means lots of new scholarship offers. Between coaches getting out on the road to see prospects at the various grassroots events and mid-June bringing along the start of coaches being able to contact players who just finished up their sophomore year, it’s very easy for lots and lots of players to get new scholarship offers all summer long.

Marquette men’s basketball finds themselves in an interesting place this summer, though. When Shaka Smart took over the reins of the Golden Eagles in late March, he had to start recruiting the Class of 2022 from scratch. Sure, he had been in contact with bunches of high major capable recruits while running the show at Texas, but recruiting to play in the Big 12 and recruiting to play in the Big East are two different things depending on the player in question. Same goes for recruiting to play in Austin and recruiting to play in Milwaukee. On top of that, Smart doesn’t necessarily agree with the previous coaching staff in terms of offers made for the Class of 2022.

So, yeah, Smart and his assistants have to hustle to catch up on a recruiting class that is going to be able to sign letters of intent in early November, right as Smart coaches his first ever game on the Fiserv Forum sideline. As such, we can’t be surprised that there are late July offers being handed out in the Class of 2022 from the east side of the McGuire Center’s first floor. We’ve got two new ones to talk about, so let’s go!

KyeRon Lindsay

Lindsay is listed as a 6’8”, 205 pound power forward by 247 Sports. Hailing from Denton, Texas, he attends Guyer High School there. For you geography types out there, Denton is the farthest north suburb of Fort Worth in the metroplex area.

It’s safe to wonder if Lindsay is one of the players out there most affected by the pandemic screwing with the grassroots circuit last summer. He is not currently rated or ranked by 247 Sports in either their Composite system or their internal outlook. Given that there is a high major program getting involved with him in late July, that’s definitely a sign that his lack of ranking in a system that goes out to #273 at this point is more about “scouts haven’t seen him” than “he isn’t a top 300 prospect.” After all, Lindsay also has high major offers from Oklahoma State, TCU, Tennessee, and Texas A&M on top of fellow Big East squads Xavier and DePaul.

On Wednesday morning, Brandon Jenkins from 247 Sports published an article about Lindsay’s recruitment taking off as of late. Here’s the first paragraph:

One prospect who cemented himself as a high major prospect during the Nike Peach Jam was KyeRon Lindsay. A 6-foot-8 power forward out of Denton (Texas) Guyer, the Breakout Player of the EYBL Session through the first week after averaging around 16 points, nine rebounds, and two blocks per game. His dominant and efficient efforts came at the right time as coaches quickly took a liking to his game.

and then a minute later:

During and after the two-week period, Lindsay landed offers from the likes of DePaul, Marquette, Oklahoma State, Saint Louis, TCU, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and UNLV.

You get the idea. Here’s what Lindsay told Jenkins about his newfound relationship with the Golden Eagles:

Marquette: “At first I talked to Neill Berry, and we had a good conversation about my family and what he saw from me at EYBL. They base their program off players who play with chips on their shoulders. They said they share the arena with the Bucks. Over there, it is all about basketball. That is something that I like. Shaka Smart also gave me a quick call to introduce himself and tell me that he loved my game. They said they were going to give me a call later in the week to talk about planning visits.”

We’ll have to see how things go, but later in the article, Jenkins mentions two things — academic ideas and location — that seem to keep Marquette out of the long term discussion for Lindsay.

Here’s a quick scouting report on Lindsay from Jenkins as well:

A 6-foot-8 power forward out of Denton (Texas) Guyer, the southpaw has big hands, a soft touch, and a great motor to go along with his improved physical frame.

Here’s four minutes of highlights from his 2020-21 season at Guyer:

He also has a Hudl page if you’re interested in access to more video of him.

Malik Reneau

While Lindsay is perhaps an underscouted and rapidly exploding prospect, the same can not be said for Reneau. Let’s be honest: If you’re already at a notable prep school like Montverde Academy in Florida, people have already figured out that you’re pretty good at this basketball thing. That measures up with Reneau’s rating and ranking. The 6’8”, 210 pound power forward is currently rated as a four-star prospect in the Class of 2022 by 247 Sports’ Composite system, where he ranks #53 in the country. That makes him the #7 power forward prospect in the class behind fellow MU prospect A.J. Casey at #6. Amazingly, Reneau is the #12 prospect in the state of Florida, but that’s because he’s the seventh best player at Montverde Academy in his class.

I’ll say it again, because it’s mind blowing: Malik Reneau would be on the Second Team if you made five player teams at Montverde just based on 247’s Composite Ranking. Practices there must be NUTS.

Here are the last five high major programs to offer Reneau a scholarship, in reverse order according to his own Twitter: Arkansas, Indiana, Virginia, South Carolina, and Washington. 247 says he has offers from traditional powers Florida State and Florida as well, although being local-ish to Montverde in the Orlando area (as well as Mater Academy in Miami, where Reneau was before transferring) probably helps that out a little bit.

While talking about Indiana offering a scholarship to Reneau, Daily Hoosier noted that he has been on fire during EYBL play this summer. In six games at Peach Jam, Reneau averaged 20.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and two steals, at least according to DH. They don’t link out there, so I’m not sure where they’re pulling the numbers from.... but they are pretty eye-popping. At Mater Academy in 2019-20, Reneau averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds, which is pretty great. His first year at Montverde isn’t as obviously outstanding — 6.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.0 assists — but please remember that the Montverde team is loaded just with 2022 guys much less seniors like Ryan Nembhard who will be at Creighton in the fall. The fact that Reneau played regular rotation minutes on that team tells us that he’s pretty good.

To the YouTube! Two minutes from early April?

Five minutes of highlights from a playoff game as a sophomore at Mater Academy?

Scholarship chart time!

Marquette has four open scholarship slots for the 2022-23 school year. With Darryl Morsell unavailable for a second year and Greg Elliott potentially headed out the door after this coming season, MU definitely needs guards in this recruiting class. Lindsay and Reneau do not fit that bill..... but you also can’t only recruit guards with four open spots. Shaka Smart clearly has an affinity for “large athletic guys” as a general type for his players based who he has recruited to Milwaukee so far, and Lindsay and Reneau do fit into that mold. How will it all come together? Who can say?