Starting Five: Top 35 Samuell Williamson sets visits

Top 35 senior Samuell Williamson is down to five and has scheduled his official visits while top 100 forward Anthony Walker is down to eight and has set six visits of his own. The latest on Williamson and Walker plus news on the decommitment of a four-star point guard and more in this week's edition of Eric Bossi's Starting Five.

RIVALS ROUNDTABLE: Next big commit, must-gets and more

Top 35 wing Samuell Williamson has narrowed things down to five and set official visits to each of his finalists.

One of the most skilled offensive players in the class of 2019, Williamson is down to Kansas, Louisville, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.

Williamson's visit tour will begin this weekend when he heads to Lawrence to see Bill Self and the Jayhawks. The following week, he will see Billy Kennedy's crew in College Station. On the weekend of Sept. 14, Williamson is scheduled to head to Louisville before finishing up four straight weekends of visits by checking out Oklahoma on the weekend of Sept. 21. After a week off, the smooth 6-foot-7 wing will round out his visits with a trip to Texas Tech on the weekend of Oct. 4.

All the tools to soften up defenses with long-range shooting as well as a diverse mid-range game make Williamson a potential instant impact player at any of his potential college landing spots. It will be interesting to see if he takes all of his visits, since he's seen all of his finalists unofficially and as the visit tour kicks off, the staff here at Rivals.com looks at Kansas as the favorite.

During the summer, Anthony Walker emerged as one of the more intriguing power forward prospects in 2019 when he hit the floor for Team BBC. Though he's skinny, Walker is a big-time athlete who can put the ball on the floor, has a jumper with potential and could eventually play as a stretch four or a small ball five man.

After entertaining several offers, Walker is now down to eight finalists and has six visits, five official and one unofficial, set in place.

Boston College, Illinois (Sept. 5), Kansas (Sept. 28, unofficial), Maryland, Miami (Oct. 5), Pittsburgh (Sept. 14), Rhode Island (Sept. 21) and VCU (Oct. 19).

Walker -- who visited Pitt unofficially over the weekend -- has yet to set a timetable for announcing a decision and the Baltimore native will report to prep school powerhouse Brewster Academy after he finishes his official visit to Illinois. However, with the visits coming in this order he appears to be headed towards deciding in time to sign during the early signing period.

Four-star point guard Markese Jacobs committed to Kansas so long ago (October of 2016) that he seemed to be a forgotten man whenever anybody discussed the Jayhawks 2019 recruiting efforts. On Friday, the super athletic senior went ahead and opened things up in what looks to be a pretty mutual parting of ways.

Arguably as athletic a perimeter player as there is in the class of 2019, Jacobs probably isn't quite as tall as his listed 5-foot-11, but he can sure be fun to watch because of his explosive athleticism and ability to get to the rim.

Saint Louis (where his older brother Demarius Jacobs is a freshman), DePaul, Florida State, Illinois, Nebraska and Virginia Tech are among those who have already jumped in, so it doesn't look like Jacobs is going to lack for options.

Tim Jankovich and SMU added their second player from the class of 2019 on Saturday when Texas wing Darius McBride committed.

More than anything, McBride is a power wing. He can play the shooting guard or he can play the small forward but whichever position he plays, Mustangs fans can count on him doing so with extreme physicality. He attacks the glass, can bowl through defenders on his way to the rim and is a good enough jump shooter that defenders can't back too far off of him in hopes of limiting his drives.

McBride joins flashy ball-handler Bryce Cook a three-star point guard who also hails from Texas but is spending his senior season at Bel Aire (Kans.) Sunrise Christian.

We'll finish this week's Starting Five with a couple of interesting additions.

Head coach Earl Grant and the College of Charleston scored one of the bigger thefts from the class of 2019 late Friday night when they landed Rivals150 guard Brenden Tucker. A big time athlete from the state of Georgia who can play either the one or the two, Tucker figured to be somebody that would entertain SEC offers before his recruitment finished but Grant and his staff followed him everywhere he went, got him on campus and got the job done. An explosive scorer off the dribble, he could be a potential All-Conference type player for Charleston in the Colonial.

What a busy week it was for Xavier. They started it off adding potential Rivals150 big man Zach Freemantle, then they lost the commitment of skilled four-star forward Elias King. Travis Steele and company needed little time to replace his opened spot when they added intriguing big man Dieonte Miles on Saturday. A skinny big man who is all arms and legs, Miles can run, is light on his feet, dunks everything around the rim and has potential as a rim protector and lob catcher once he adds some strength. In addition to Miles and Freemantle, Xavier's early class includes Rivals150 big man Daniel Ramsey.

As for King, he took a weekend unofficial visit to Georgia. That's the school he was originally committed to before Mark Fox was fired. Look for his recruitment to be an interesting follow.