Sean Jones Includes Marquette In His Top Three

Summertime is a big recruiting time in college basketball land, and so it seems like there’s always something new to discuss. Today, it’s Marquette men’s basketball landing in a top three for Class of 2022 guard Sean Jones. He announced his top three, which also includes Big East rival Xavier and former Big East member Pittsburgh, on his Instagram.

Aside: I can’t be the only one who wants to see Jones pick either Marquette or Xavier just so Sad Pitt Bear can make an appearance, right?

Anyway.

Jones was offered a scholarship by Shaka Smart back in late May of this year, about two months after Smart took over as head coach in Milwaukee. At the time, the 247 Sports Composite said that he was the #178 prospect in the class, and now the 5’10”, 170 pound point guard is up to #151 in the country. That still has him slotted in as a three-star prospect. 247’s internal rankings has him a teensy bit higher at #142 in the country, but still #21 amongst point guards and #3 in the state of Ohio.

Back in late June, Jones visited Marquette on an official visit. He was sure to document said trip on his Instagram with a picture with his mom in front of what appears to be the reinforced wall in MU’s Performance Research Center’s weight room.

Jones averaged 18.2 points per game as a sophomore at Lincoln High School in Gahanna, Ohio. Pretty quality stuff, particularly since his team went 24-2. I was able to track down data for mid-February of his junior year, where he was averaging 15.5 per game and reached the Division 1 quarterfinals in the Ohio state tournament where his team lost on a buzzer beater right after he had given them the lead in the closing seconds.

Here’s a four minute highlight reel from May 2020.

And now, the scholarship chart.

Between four scholarship spots projected to be available, Darryl Morsell only playing one year at Marquette, and Greg Elliott potentially either leaving MU or ending his collegiate career after the 2021-22 season, the Golden Eagles are going to be in need of guards for the following season. That’s where Jones fits in, because at 5’10”, he’s not contributing unless he’s playing in the backcourt. Perhaps by this time next year the need won’t be as dramatically obvious as it is right now. Maybe Stevie Mitchell shows he can be a high major point guard out of the gate. Maybe Emarion Ellis can give the Golden Eagles quality minutes as a freshman. Maybe Tyler Kolek steps up from George Mason and can be a quality shooting guard for the next several years.

Maybe Maybe Maybe.

Maybes don’t get things done, and having talented ballhandlers on the roster is never a bad plan. That goes double for teams with only nine guys projected to be on the roster next season.