Marquette Men’s Basketball Announces Class Of 2024 Signings

Hey, would you look at that, 2023’s fall signing period just snuck up on us. That’s what happens when it comes right after the start of a season that opens with a banner raising ceremony, I suppose.

ANYWAY, Marquette men’s basketball announced the signing of two Class of 2024 prospects on Wednesday morning. Don’t worry, we were only expecting to get two signings. Let’s dig into a little bit more about the two future Golden Eagles.

Damarius Owens

Owens was the first of the two players to commit to Marquette, making his pledge back in February of this year. He picked the Golden Eagles over Syracuse and Virginia Tech. He’s from upstate New York, so this is wandering around in Syracuse’s backyard for recruits, and that’s always fun.

Here’s how Marquette wrote about Owens in the official press release, and it’s always interesting to see what the office prioritizes.

A top-100 nationally ranked recruit, Owens is rated as high as 38th in the country by Rivals. He was a first team all-league honoree as a junior after averaging 14.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. He helped the team to a 30-9 overall record and a conference championship in 2022-23 under head coach Matt Garvey. He competed on the AAU circuit for Albany City Rocks.

Owens is currently ranked #55 in the country by the 247 Sports Composite, and #51 in the country in their internal rankings. The On3 Industry Ranking has Owens at #56 in the country and #65 in their internal assessment. Rivals, as mentioned in the press release, ranks Owens at #38, while ESPN has him at #77.

Royce Parham

Parham committed to Marquette back late April, choosing the Golden Eagles over Pitt, Penn State, and Xavier. I should probably point out that Parham hails from Pittsburgh, so prying him away from Pitt and Penn State is a fairly notable accomplishment for Shaka Smart and the MU coaching staff.

Here’s how the MU press release writes up Parham:

Parham is also a top-100 recruit and will play his first season at Western Reserve Academy in 2023-24 after spending three seasons at North Hills High School in suburban Pittsburgh. A two-time all-state honoree, he averaged 28.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per contest in 2022-23 and set a school record with a 47-point game. He helped the team to a semifinal appearance in the state tournament and a 46-9 overall mark the past two seasons.

Parham is currently ranked #97 in the 247 Sports Composite system, which is actually down from the #68 that he was holding onto when he committed to Marquette. Internally, 247 has him at #73, which is a big improvement from the #113 they gave him back in April. On3 has him at #83 in their Industry ranking and #72 internally. Rivals ranks Parham at #90 in the country, down from a #63 ranking back in December of last year. ESPN has a page for him now, which is an improvement from April, but they only rank players in the top 100.

Here’s Shaka Smart’s press release quote on the two young men:

“We are excited today to announce the signing of Damarius and Royce,” Smart said. ”They come from really, really good upbringings, phenomenal parents and terrific support systems. They happen to be teammates and roommates and Western Reserve Academy, which is unique, so they will come into our program with a great understanding of how to make each other better.”

“Damarius and Royce are both ‘Marquette guys’ who fit in with what we want to be and our culture,” Smart said. ”They value relationships, put incredible time and effort into growth and they care about winning.”

And here’s his signing day media availability.

AND FINALLY: The Marquette men’s basketball scholarship chart.

As you can see, Marquette does still have one projected scholarship spot available for the 2024-25 season. Not surprising, as it makes perfect logical sense to keep one spot open for flexibility reasons juuuust in case. In this case, the biggest reason why would be to have it available for either Tyler Kolek or Oso Ighodaro if they choose to spend their COVID bonus season at Marquette next year. Barring some other news coming down the pipe, it would have to be one or the other, as MU has only the one projected spot available.