Marquette men’s basketball head coach Steve Wojciechowski and his staff’s hard work during the July evaluation periods is beginning to bear fruit as 2017 small forwards Chase Johnson and Terrence Lewis included the Blue and Gold in their recently-narrowed lists of prospective schools.
Johnson, a 6-foot-7 standout from Ripley, W.V., vaguely announced Monday on Twitter that his final schools (besides Marquette) are Butler, Virginia Tech, Florida, Vanderbilt, Virginia, TCU, Kansas State, West Virginia, Clemson, Tennessee, Penn State, Georgia Tech and Richmond.
Johnson, who received an offer from Marquette July 24, flew under the radar until last month. In fact, the majority of his remaining schools did not offer him until the third and final evaluation period of July.
Lewis, on the other hand, provided a much smaller list of schools — Marquette, UNLV, Iowa State and Illinois. The Milwaukee Riverside standout has ability to score with ease, resulting in ESPN ranking him 65th in the nation and second in Wisconsin for his class. The only recruit ranked higher in the state is Jordan Poole, who verbally committed to Michigan last October.
Marquette did not offer Lewis until July 18 but Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook editor Mark Miller reported that Wojciechowski’s staff has been eyeing the Playground Elite summer star for “a long time.”
Johnson and Lewis join Hasahn French, Theo John and Xavier Tillman as recruits to include the Golden Eagles in their final groups of programs. Marquette has four scholarships for the Class of 2017, one of which is occupied by 2017 commit Ike Eke.
The sole blemish on an otherwise-excellent start to the month was ESPN 100 power forward Derek Culver’s commitment to West Virginia; however, the Warren, Ohio, native’s decision was far from a surprise, as Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers were long-considered the favorites to land him.
Wojciechowski did not dwell on the team’s early August success, offering 2018 guard TJ Moss Tuesday night. The Memphis, Tenn., native has offers from UConn, Iowa State and Alabama, among several other notable programs. ESPN does not include Moss in their top 60 but the 247 Composite ranks him 76th.
