Butler basketball recruiting news: 2017 point guard Wabissa Bede has Bulldogs among his final five teams

2017 four-star point guard Wabissa Bede has been making waves lately on the circuit and on Tuesday, another one crashed onto the shore. While it’s usually Bede’s play that makes headlines, the Massachusetts native cut down his list to five schools and one Big East representative is still in play.

The Butler Bulldogs are among the five teams that are in the mix for the 6-foot-1, 180-pound floor general. The Bulldogs, Virginia Tech Hokies, Minnesota Golden Gophers, LaSalle Explorers and UMass Minutemen are the final five for Bede, as first reported by 247Sports’ Andrew Slater.

What’s more is that current trajectory puts Bede in good position to be locked down by head coach Chris Holtmann. Although it is merely just four predictions so far, Butler is in the lead currently for Bede via 247Sports’ Crystal Ball. With that said, three of the picks were made on Tuesday alone by Josh Stirn of InsideMDSports, Jerry Meyer of 247Sports, and Drew Messmer of AllMetroHoops. Tyler Hicks of Front Row HoopCast had made the initial pick back on July 28.

The Bulldogs will have to fill the void that will be left by current point guard Tyler Lewis when he leaves campus after this upcoming season. They received some good news late last week when highly touted guard Alex Barcello included BU among his final five schools as well. Barcello isn’t currently projected to be a Bulldog as it appears likely he’ll stay out on the west coast. So, it would appear based on what’s out there right now that the Bulldogs could land Bede when all is done and dusted and be able to sustain the possibility that Barcello commits elsewhere.

Whatever the case: Butler is certainly making strides in the recruiting world and the move to the Big East and subsequent NCAA Tournament successes over the past few years definitely appears to be paying dividends.

Bede is currently the sixth-ranked player in the state of Massachusetts per 247Sports Composite Rankings. He is a Top 50 point guard, ranked 46th amongst his peers at his position, and stands at 215th in the country overall.