Marquette has added the crown jewel to its critical 2020 men’s basketball recruiting class.
Dawson Garcia, a 6-foot-11 forward from Prior Lake, Minnesota, committed to the Golden Eagles and signed his national letter of intent on Wednesday, the last day of the fall signing period.
Garcia is rated the No. 31 prospect in the 2020 class, according to the 247 Sports composite rankings. Garcia also had been considering Indiana, Minnesota and Memphis.
MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski has three commitments for next season’s team. Garcia joins 6-7 forward Justin Lewis from Baltimore and 6-9 forward Oso Ighodaro from Chandler, Arizona. That class is ranked seventh in the national and No. 1 in the Big East by 247 Sports.
The trio will likely form a versatile and interchangeable frontcourt for the Golden Eagles. Garcia projects to be an inside-out scorer, Lewis a physical rebounder and Ighodaro a ball-handler and slasher. All three have long wingspans and are switchable on defense at all the big positions.
The class is crucial for MU’s future with all-time leading scorer Markus Howard, Sacar Anim, Ed Morrow Jr. and Jayce Johnson leaving after this season.
Garcia is the latest talented player MU has recruited from Minnesota. Golden Eagles senior forward Anim (DeLaSalle High School) and junior center Theo John (Champlin Park) also hail from the Minneapolis area. Two of Garcia’s AAU teammates with D1 Minnesota, Steven Crowl and Ben Carlson, are committed to the University of Wisconsin’s 2020 class.
Wojciechowski and his coaching staff recruited Garcia hard, offering him a scholarship in June 2018. Wojciechowski and associate head coach Stan Johnson made many trips last winter to watch Garcia’s games at Prior Lake High School.
“Dawson is one of the top players in the United States,” Wojciechowski said in a statement. “He’s a position-less player with great versatility and competitiveness and can be one of the top players throughout his time at Marquette.”
Garcia took an official visit to MU last February, watching from the stands at Fiserv Forum as the Golden Eagles beat Villanova, 66-65. He took a second official visit earlier this month.