Recruiting as of 5/15/25

[JakeBarnes]

Maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. First, 247 doesn't do a great job tracking offers. Shaka has 18 offers out for 2023. Using 247's rankings, 0 offers are to top 21 players, 4 are to players ranked from 22-32, 4 are ranked from 47 to 66, and 10 are currently unranked. You are correct that the rankings are far from settled and many of these players may end up ranked a lot higher than they are currently. But if you look at some of these unranked offers, a few like Owen Freeman are guys who a lot of high majors are recruiting. But in several cases, we are the first and in some cases only high major to have made an offer. Maybe these guys blow up, but my guess is they end up as three stars.

What I've seen from Shaka so far leads me to believe that he is not interested in chasing 5-stars, which is a big departure from his Texas days (to avoid nitpicking, I think two of his 23 offers are 5 stars but they are the lowest ranked 5-stars in the class). I'm sure if the right one and done comes along, Shaka will make a play but he seems to be focused on multi-year freshmen. I'm also led to believe that fit/attitude/culture are the first priority and talent is the second priority. Again, that's not to say that other players have bad attitudes or "we cooled on them" but just a statement that not every player will respond well to every coach's playing and teaching style.

I do also wonder if some of these offers are not really about the players as they are but offers for the players they may become. With insta-transfers, I think Shaka may be recruiting some lower level players who will ultimately end up at mid-majors, so that if the player were to blow up at said mid-major, Shaka already has the established relationship to snatch them on the transfer market.

For the highlighted part: to the contrary, I think many of these are players that a lot of coaches haven't gotten eyes on and therefore didn't get the hype of Covid year summer leagues and such. Shaka has talked about that a lot in his calls/interviews/etc. Recruiting world is weird. I imagine we're going to see some strange "reshuffled" and retros on the rankings for 2022 when all is said and done.

[Silkk the Shaka]

I'm with you.  Especially when the selling point for Shaka (for me at least) was his ability to recruit and recruit highly ranked players.  I didn't expect him to recruit at the level he did at UT, but I expected more than what we've seen so far. That obviously can change, especially with on the court results.  But this is looking like a longer rebuild than I initially expected.

I actually think Shaka fell into the same trap Wojo did during his UT tenure, prioritizing star rankings above all else. I was a Moser guy because I was afraid Shaka would repeat what he did at Texas. My upside case for Shaka was the hope that he had taken an honest account of what did & didn't work in the past at both VCU & Texas, discard what didn't, emphasize what did, and take a patient view after implementing his new path forward. His recruiting thus far actually has me very encouraged that he is following that path. Time will tell if it works out.

[muspc2]

    Regular posters have made very good points about this recruiting cycle. Particularly that there are a ton of first and second years guys who are 4* and 3* who are presumably ahead of any present recruits. Shaka's pros and cons have been discussed extensively, but the present state of the MU program does not exactly help recruiting. Without blaming WOJO for everything, it is simply a fact that MU is no longer a college basketball "destination". Without going all the way back to the consistent success of the '70's (starting with a NIT championship after turning down an NCAA bid, being ranked No. 1 in the weekly polls, losing in the championship game, losing in a '76 regional which should have been the championship game since there was not national seeding at the time and winning it all in '77, etc.) only Kevin, Tom and Buzz have even approached any level of national success. Most who read this board have pretty strong ties to MU, Marquette and Milwaukee, but I would imagine that the average teenager, even if his name was Bond and he may have grown up impressed by the local team, might consider present success of a school when exposed to the national recruiting process. MU is now a BEast also ran.
    Hopefully Shaka can turn the trajectory of MU BB around, but just because he had a measure of success in the past at Texas and Old Dominion there were no reasonable expectations that this recruiting class would be littered with 5* players. After the coming season shakes out and it is seen who plays and who transfers out would seem to be a time a more accurately assess the state of the program.
Compared to the disaster zone WOJO made of MU BB (not demeaning the personal character of individual past players or their efforts), if Shaka begins to put together
a program that is constantly improving fans will start to be satisfied again.

[Uncle Rico]

I think ratings for '21 and '22 kids will be in constant flux and we should all be wary of them.  That said, the ceiling becomes a lot lower when filling the roster with 3* talent.  You have to hope you find a Kaminsky unicorn to be a serious title contender.  At the end of the day, having NBA talent wins titles

[WhiteTrash]

I think ratings for '21 and '22 kids will be in constant flux and we should all be wary of them.  That said, the ceiling becomes a lot lower when filling the roster with 3* talent.  You have to hope you find a Kaminsky unicorn to be a serious title contender.  At the end of the day, having NBA talent wins titles

This is true. Rankings are not perfect,  but mostly correct. That said, I'm excited about Shaka.

[brewcity77]

The most important thing a college basketball coach does is recruit.  But that doesn't mean winning recruiting rankings is the most important.  What's important is he recruits to his team, recruits guys who buy in and add to his culture.  If he recruits guys who can play successfully in his system, we'll be fine.  And once we start winning, the Leon Bonds will be coming, too.

I'm of the opinion that Bo Ryan was one of the best recruiters of his generation. In retrospect, where would Frank Kaminsky rank in the class of 2011? 2nd, maybe, behind AD? Ethan Happ certainly ended up one of the top-10 players in 2014 despite his sub-100 ranking. Bronson Koenig, Jordan Taylor, Alando Tucker, Nigel Hayes, so many unsung recruits that won so much and produced so much. The list goes on and on, but Bo found the right guys to become stars and rode that to winning season after winning season. All based on his ability to recruit the right guys. It's not easily replicable, but I'd love if Shaka could recruit like Bo did.

[Dr. Blackheart]

I think ratings for '21 and '22 kids will be in constant flux and we should all be wary of them.

+1.  Coaches let alone scouting services haven't had much time to watch these kids live for almost 1.5 years until recently due to COVID. Not even sure if 247 has replaced Brian Snow yet, but there are not even many Crystal Bowels being awarded.

Shaka may have an advantage here because of his Grassroots relationships to get early reads on rising stars. Maybe that's my optimism speaking but the recruiting services are flying mostly blind nationally.

[GoldenWarrior11]

    Hopefully Shaka can turn the trajectory of MU BB around, but just because he had a measure of success in the past at Texas and Old Dominion there were no reasonable expectations that this recruiting class would be littered with 5* players.

How does one confuse VCU and Old Dominion?

[PointWarrior]

Maybe Shaka's 3 start recruits are really 5 star recruits.

How does one confuse VCU and Old Dominion?

[TSmith34, Inc.]

How does one confuse VCU and Old Dominion?

Auto correct

[wadesworld]

Auto correct

Yeah. My phone usually autocorrects "MU" to "Washington State."

[JWags85]

I'm of the opinion that Bo Ryan was one of the best recruiters of his generation. In retrospect, where would Frank Kaminsky rank in the class of 2011? 2nd, maybe, behind AD? Ethan Happ certainly ended up one of the top-10 players in 2014 despite his sub-100 ranking. Bronson Koenig, Jordan Taylor, Alando Tucker, Nigel Hayes, so many unsung recruits that won so much and produced so much. The list goes on and on, but Bo found the right guys to become stars and rode that to winning season after winning season. All based on his ability to recruit the right guys. It's not easily replicable, but I'd love if Shaka could recruit like Bo did.

Kaminsky sure, but are you serious with these?  Koenig was a huge deal cause he was a top 40 guy who turned down UNC and others.  He got dinged in the rankings after choosing Wisconsin.  Nigel Hays was around 125 and had offers from OSU, Butler, Minnesota, and Xavier.  Jordan Taylor committed to Wisconsin pretty early so his offer sheet wasn't huge, but he was a borderline top 100 guy who was top 2-3 in Minnesota for his class.

The idea that Wisconsin had a bunch of no name, unrecruited stiffs that got turned into diamonds in the rough was totally overblown.  Bo never got one and dones and for the most part sucked at recruiting top 50 guys but those FF teams had two top 40 guys in Dekker and Koenig, plus Hayes.  Bo liked guys in the 100-200 range that he could bring along slowly and develop, which he was brilliant at.  But the majority of players that turned out well for him had other high major offers and attention, even if they weren't top 100 recruits.  Even guys like Gasser and Ben Brust.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I also don't think Ryan was necessarily finding underrated prospects either. I think had they gone to other programs they wouldn't have been as good. I think he was a master of teaching his system and the system made up for having less talent than the other top teams. Just look how poorly his NBA numbers are.

But I agree in the sense that recruiting is about securing players that you can win with. And Bo certainly did that very well.

[Goose]

TAMU

I have been preaching that MU needs to embrace a system for the past five years. I think you are spot on with the Bo Ryan comments and I think Shaka is going to create a similar system driven program. Thankfully, Shaka's system is going include highly athletic players and provide some excitement. The future looks awfully bright at MU, IMO.

[Scoop Snoop]

I think it was Charles Barkley (or maybe Kenny Smith) who made a remark like "Marquette has no identity. They need an identity."

It will be interesting to see how well the price of establishing an identity, a system, will be accepted by Scoopers this season. Patience and taking the long view or knee jerk complaints when the losses start to pile up?

[Dr. Blackheart]

Patience and taking the long view or knee jerk complaints when the losses start to pile up?

Yes

[muspc2]

    Sorry about the VCU - Old Dominion error about our Coach's resume. As I was initially typing it crossed my mind as to why Texas would reach out to a freight/trucking company for their college basketball coach, but it was their prerogative at that time.

[genious expert]

Kaminsky sure, but are you serious with these?  Koenig was a huge deal cause he was a top 40 guy who turned down UNC and others.  He got dinged in the rankings after choosing Wisconsin.  Nigel Hays was around 125 and had offers from OSU, Butler, Minnesota, and Xavier.  Jordan Taylor committed to Wisconsin pretty early so his offer sheet wasn't huge, but he was a borderline top 100 guy who was top 2-3 in Minnesota for his class.

The idea that Wisconsin had a bunch of no name, unrecruited stiffs that got turned into diamonds in the rough was totally overblown.  Bo never got one and dones and for the most part sucked at recruiting top 50 guys but those FF teams had two top 40 guys in Dekker and Koenig, plus Hayes.  Bo liked guys in the 100-200 range that he could bring along slowly and develop, which he was brilliant at.  But the majority of players that turned out well for him had other high major offers and attention, even if they weren't top 100 recruits.  Even guys like Gasser and Ben Brust.

Just a refresher for everyone since this always seems to get brought up

Bo's recruiting classes and rankings via 247:

5stars - 2
4stars - 14
3stars - 23
2stars or less - 4

avg ranking - #183
median ranking - #152

2001
Devin Harris NR on 247

2002
nobody

2003
Brian Butch 5star #10
Kammron Taylor 3star #310

2004
Greg Stiemsma 4star #34
Michael Flowers 3star #173
DeAaron Williams 3star #223
Shariff Chambliss 3star #286

2005
Joe Krabbenhoft 4star #28
Marcus Landry 3star #135

2006
Trevon Hughes 4star #62
Jason Bohannon 4star #63
JP Gavinski 4star #117

2007
Jon Leuer 4star #81
Keaton Nankivil 4star #86
Tim Jarmusz 3star #199

2008
Jared Berggren 4star #85
Jordan Taylor 4star #109
Ian Markolf 3star #161
Robert Wilson 3star #265
Ryan Evans 3star #491

2009
Diamond Taylor 4star #117
Mike Brusewitz 4star #119
Jeremy Glover 2star #664

2010
Evan Anderson 3star #140
Ben Brust 3star #183
Josh Gasser 3star #197
Duje Dukan 3star #198

2011
Jarrod Uthoff 4star #116
George Marshall 3star #169
Traevon Jackson 3star #201
Frank Kaminsky 3star #218

2012
Sam Dekker 5star #12
Zak Showalter 3star #292

2013
Bronson Koenig 4star #110
Nigel Hayes 3star #137
Vitto Brown 3star #227
Riley Dearring 3star #253
Jordan Hill 2star #353
Aaron Moesch NR

2014
Ethan Happ 3star #152

2015
Brevin Pritzl 4star #94
Alex Illikainen 3star #147
Khalil Iverson 3star #319
Charlie Thomas 3star #380
Andy Van Vliet NR

[MU82]

Thanks for that list, geni. We should save it somewhere.

Lots of guys who were brought along to outplay their rankings ... but also quite a few who didn't live up to their hype.

As many have said, it was all about the system.

I have been preaching that MU needs to embrace a system for the past five years. I think you are spot on with the Bo Ryan comments and I think Shaka is going to create a similar system driven program. Thankfully, Shaka's system is going include highly athletic players and provide some excitement. The future looks awfully bright at MU, IMO.

I love this take and the optimism, Goose. We're all hoping for better days ahead for our alma mater.

We Are Marquette!

[bilsu]

Ryan was successful, because he recruited players that understood they were not going to play as true freshmen. They accepted the fact that they were going to play when they learned team skills, which included not turning the ball over.

[Stretchdeltsig]

TAMU

I have been preaching that MU needs to embrace a system for the past five years. I think you are spot on with the Bo Ryan comments and I think Shaka is going to create a similar system driven program. Thankfully, Shaka's system is going include highly athletic players and provide some excitement. The future looks awfully bright at MU, IMO.

Goose

You are spot on.

[avid1010]

TAMU

I have been preaching that MU needs to embrace a system for the past five years. I think you are spot on with the Bo Ryan comments and I think Shaka is going to create a similar system driven program. Thankfully, Shaka's system is going include highly athletic players and provide some excitement. The future looks awfully bright at MU, IMO.

i don't disagree with this in totality, and i know a system and culture goes beyond the just offense you run, but he did go away from the swing when they had their FF success in the tourney.  i thought buzz always had "dogs" to coin a bobby portis/pj tucker theme, but he would adjust how he used them.  athleticism, length, well-conditioned, fast tempo, etc... is what i see shaka trying to do. 

i know this.  it won't be worse than wojo and there seems like some real upside. 

[brewcity77]

So Bo had 5 sub-100 players named to All-American teams. 5 more sub-100 players named to All-Big 10 teams. Not to mention many of his top-100 players (Butch, Leuer, Dekker, Nankivil) named to all-league teams as well.

Find me another recruiter in a high major league that found 10 all-league players outside the top-100, including 5 All-Americans and a NPOY. I don't think that person exists in the last 20 years. Bo wasn't just a great coach or developer, he was a great recruiter because he found those guys in a way no other high major coach could. Yes, he had misses, everyone does, but his high level hit rate outside the top-100 was unparalleled.

[Nukem2]

So Bo had 5 sub-100 players named to All-American teams. 5 more sub-100 players named to All-Big 10 teams. Not to mention many of his top-100 players (Butch, Leuer, Dekker, Nankivil) named to all-league teams as well.

Find me another recruiter in a high major league that found 10 all-league players outside the top-100, including 5 All-Americans and a NPOY. I don't think that person exists in the last 20 years. Bo wasn't just a great coach or developer, he was a great recruiter because he found those guys in a way no other high major coach could. Yes, he had misses, everyone does, but his high level hit rate outside the top-100 was unparalleled.

Part of Bo's success in that regard was to get early commitments.

[The Scat]

Thanks for that list, geni. We should save it somewhere.

Lots of guys who were brought along to outplay their rankings ... but also quite a few who didn't live up to their hype.

As many have said, it was all about the system.

I love this take and the optimism, Goose. We're all hoping for better days ahead for our alma mater.

We Are Marquette!

Jeremy Glover should not be on the list - he was a walk-on before he walked off with someone else's property.