The start of contact with the prep players who just wrapped up their sophomore years of high school isn’t the end of summer recruiting news. Heck, it’s really just the beginning. Marquette men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart and his staff have stayed busy since the middle of June, offering up scholarships to a pair of new faces in the Class of 2024 as well as getting started on their Class of 2025 recruiting offers as well. We’ve got a bit to get through, so let’s get started!

Class of 2024

Isaiah Abraham

Abraham is listed as a 6’6”, 190 pound small forward by 247 Sports. He’s not rated or ranked in the Composite yet, but that appears to have more to do with other recruiting services not getting a handle on him yet. 247’s internal setup has him installed as the #86 prospect in the country at the moment. That makes him the #25 small forward in the Class of 2024 (man, nearly a third of the top 90 are small forwards, that’s wild), and the #4 player in the state of Virginia.

As I was scrolling through his Twitter to confirm that I had the right guy on 247 (let’s be honest, he doesn’t have the world’s most unique name, better safe than sorry), I discovered this article that Abraham had retweeted into his feed. It’s a rundown of a bunch of prospects in various classes that were at a high school team event in late June at DeMatha in the DMV. Here’s what they said about Abraham as he made his first ever appearance for Paul VI High School:

The explosive 6-foot-6 Abraham is a highlight waiting to happen in the open court, and gives the Panthers a level of athleticism on the wing that few can match. Look for him to make a big impact as he gets more comfortable, and adds to a list of scholarship offers that currently includes George Mason, Georgetown, Kansas State, Maryland and Virginia Tech.

Abraham has also added a scholarship offer from Wichita State since the article was written, with that one coming in (at least according to his Twitter) one day after Marquette.

Damarius Owens

We have one of those good news/bad news situations with Damarius Owens’ 247 Sports page. The good news is, of course, that it exists, and that’s how we know that he’s a 6’7”, 150 pound small forward from Hudson, Ohio. The Western Reserve Academy student does not have a rating or a ranking yet in either 247’s Composite or internal arrangement, and that’s the bad news. Nothing wrong with that for a guy who just finished his sophomore year of high school, it just leaves a lot of information out in the wild for now.

247 lists five offers for Owens at the moment, none of which are the offer from Shaka Smart. Cincinnati and Syracuse are the two high major offers listed. A scroll through of his Twitter also pops up an offer from Creighton.

Originally from upstate New York, Owens still runs with the City Rocks grassroots squad, and he had a pretty strong showing in early June even though he wasn’t the focus of the operation. From Sports Illustrated:

In less than 15 minutes per game, Owens averaged 9.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 0.8 blocks while shooting 76.5% from the field and 66.7% from beyond the arc.

Here’s a 60 second long highlight clip from back in the beginning of April.

Class of 2025

Joson Sanon

If you’re a Class of 2025 prospect — in other words, freshly done with your first year of high school right now — and you’ve got a 247 Sports page, that’s usually a pretty good sign for your collegiate basketball prospects. That’s the case for Sanon, who is listed as a 6’5”, 180 pound small forward. The Vermont Academy student isn’t rated or ranked at all at this point, but it’s incredibly early in his recruiting cycle, so no worries there.

I don’t know if it’s a one-to-one connection as to how Sanon has a page at this point, but 247’s Adam Finkelstein wrote about Sanon in late June after seeing him at the NEPSAC Showcase. Here’s the report:

The 6-foot-5 wing had his total game on display as he was attacking the rim, but with more creativity and instinctive solutions than you typically see from a young player, while also mixing in signs of his evolving shot-making potential with pull-ups and threes alike. Ultimately, he stood out as one of the best underclassmen, and long-term prospects, in the field, while leading his team to their second consecutive undefeated weekend.

When you’re a standout next to 2023 guys who are trying to narrow down their collegiate options this summer and 2024 guys who are perhaps exploding onto the scene, then that’s probably good news for your long term future.

It appears that Marquette is Sanon’s first high major offer, and Providence was quickly right behind the Golden Eagles. He also already had offers from Bryant and UMass.

Would you like two minutes of highlights?

Jalen Rougier-Roane

Jalen Rougier-Roane doesn’t appear to have a 247 Sports page yet, but I’m guessing it’s just a matter of time on that front. His MaxPreps page for first year at Sidwell Friends High School in Washington, D.C., lets us know that he’s measuring in at 6’5” and 186 pounds these days. They’re also marking him as a wing and a small forward, but since he’s also just done with freshman year, we’ll wait to see if he’s still got a little bit of growing to do.

MaxPreps is also helpful in the department of telling us that Rougier-Roane averaged 7.8 points per game in 30 appearances for Sidwell last season. Now, you’re saying “hey, wait, less than 10 a game and he’s a high major prospect?” Yeah, I am. Remember: These are his freshman year numbers, and he did that for a Sidwell team that went 29-2 overall and wrapped up the year as MaxPrep’s #1 squad in Washington, D.C. 7.8 a night on that team as a freshman sounds pretty dang good, huh?

I’m curious about what Marquette being his first ever offer is going to mean down the line. Maybe a lot, maybe not so much. On one hand, it’s good to be the first in the door, particularly when the next few teams are George Mason, NJIT, and Norfolk State. On the other hand, if Rougier-Roane is about to explode in terms of national recognition, it could just be a matter of time before blue bloods get involved and then maybe being first doesn’t matter all that much.

Rougier-Roane posted this video on his Twitter in late June. ANALYSIS: He does not look like a freshman in high school.

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Scholarship chart time!

We’re looking at 2024 and 2025 for these guys, but with three possible COVID bonus years sitting out there for the 2024-25 school year, it’s hard to get a strong grasp on exactly what the scholarship situation could be by then. We can say for certain that last year’s freshman will be projected to depart Milwaukee before the Class of 2025 arrives. Presumably, those guys are going to be cornerstones of the program by then, and figuring out how to replace them will be something of a task for the coaching staff. If those four guys are still here and any of the COVID bonus years come through, then the 2025 recruiting class will be a very large and thus very crucial one for Marquette.