MORE:
SMU lands top JUCO
And then there were just 26 Rivals150 prospects left on
the board.
Friday afternoon, JaJuan Johnson became the latest ranked
prospect to make his college decision.
Ranked No. 63 in the country, the 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Memphis (Tenn.)
Southwind picked Marquette.
Long, rangy and quick, Johnson burst onto the national scene last spring after a
excellent junior season at Southwind. An strong defender with good feet and
quick hands, Johnson also proved to be a bigger threat on offense than
most thought he was earlier in his career.
"I wanted to go to a basketball school and really, Marquette was the only basketball school on my list," Johnson told Rivals.com. "My ultimate goal is to make it to the next level (the NBA) so I had to go somewhere they were goning to help me get there."
"They (built) a relationship with not just me but with my mom, my stepdaddy, my brother and my sister. I'm coming in with a great player, we'll have a Top 5 class. They're in the Big East, they're always ranked every year."
Johnson is very good driving along the
baseline, can keep defenders honest via the long ball and is developing a nice mid-range game that features and assortment of floaters.
With Johnson officially in the fold,
Buzz Williams and his staff at
Marquette have added another four-star player to what is already an outstanding
class of perimeter players and one animalistic rebounder.
Let's start with the guys who will be joining Johnson on the perimeter.
Four-star point guard Duane Wilson is an explosive off-the-dribble
scorer and playmaker who plays fast. Four-star wing Deonte Burton is a
power player who finishes in transition and defends at a very high level.
Then
the X-factor of the group is three-star combo guard John Dawson from
New Mexico, who has lots of untapped potential.
On the interior, junior college All-American Jameel McKay is an
absolute animal on the glass. Given his slender frame, you wouldn't expect him to
be a rebounding force, but his quickness and super-glue fingers allow him to
grab everything.
The addition of Johnson only solidifies a recruiting class that is already
ranked among the top 10 in the country. This weekend, Marquette hosts four-star
big man Joel Embiid in hopes of finishing out its class with the
rapidly rising 6-foot-11 big man.
---------
Leroy Watson from TigerSportsReport.com contributed to this report.
Click Here to view this Link.
[rl]