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The live recruiting period is in full swing, and Xavier decided to put their names in the hat for one of the best players in their vicinity.
Justin Ahrens, a class of 2018 small forward from Versailles, Ohio, received an offer from the Musketeers on Thursday. Ahrens announced this development on his personal Twitter account.
Thankful to receive an offer from Xavier University! #GoMusketeers ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/7ZropBDLmE
— Justin Ahrens•• (@ahrensjustin12) July 14, 2017
Ahrens had previously been an Ohio State commit, but decided to decommit from the school back on June 6. This decommit came three days before former Butler head coach Chris Holtmann accepted the position left vacant by Thad Matta, who Ahrens of course had originally committed to. Ahrens could certainly recommit to OSU (and their recruiting has certainly been looking solid under Holtmann, especially after landing Torrence Watson earlier this week) but he is certainly listening to others.
Already, per his 247Sports page, Justin Ahrens has received offers from VaTech, Vanderbilt, Duquesne, Texas A&M and Dayton and has taken unofficial visits to Dayton, NC State, VaTech and Vanderbilt. And, of course, Xavier on Thursday, too.
Justin Ahrens is ranked in the Top 150 nationally, Top 50 at his position and Top 10 in the state of Ohio. The 6-foot-5, 181-pound small forward is a four-star recruit per 247Sports Composite, and finds himself 148th overall in the country among all class of 2018 recruits.
He’s the 41st-ranked small forward in America and is sixth among all Ohio recruits. That Top 5 that Ahrens just finds himself on the outside of features Syracuse commit Darius Bazley (whom, of course, decommitted from OSU as well), Pickerington’s Jerome Hunter, Northwestern commit Pete Nance, Dwayne Cohill of Cleveland and Notre Dame commit Dane Goodwin.
Xavier is pursuing a garden variety of small forwards, so it makes sense that they would go after Ahrens as well. Already, Xavier has offered Isaiah Mucius, the aforementioned Jerome Hunter, Talen Horton-Tucker and Aaron Henry. When 2018 rolls around, they’ll have three small forwards on the roster in Kaiser Gates, Naji Marshall and Jared Ridder, but depth certainly wouldn’t hurt them by any means.
The Musketeers are still looking for their first 2018 commit. Will it be Justin Ahrens down the road? Time will tell.