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Jalen Gaffney is the latest Class of 2019 recruit to receive an offer from the Marquette Golden Eagles.
The Golden Eagles offered Gaffney a 6-foot-2, 170-pound combo guard on Wednesday afternoon. Recruiting editor Pat Lawless of Prep Circuit reported the news of Gaffney’s offer by MU on Wednesday afternoon.
Jalen Gaffney, a class of 2019 PG playing for Team Rio (NJ), just picked up an offer from Marquette.
— Pat Lawless (@PatLawless_) May 2, 2018
Let’s go over the rundown on Jalen Gaffney.
Gaffney comes to us from The Garden State. The New Jersey native hails from Columbus, New Jersey, located south of the state capital of Trenton. Despite hailing from New Jersey, though, he currently attends the Westtown School in West Charter, Pennsylvania. If that school sounds familiar, it probably should, as five-star Duke Blue Devils commit and former Villanova Wildcats target Cameron Reddish had attended the school up until this year.
Jalen is a 3-star recruit per 247Sports Composite and on their standalone site, as well. Nationally, Gaffney ranks 239th in the country as of now. He also ranks 24th among all combo guards and is 15th in the state of New Jersey. Jersey, of course, houses some of the best recruits in the country in 2019, including the likes of Precious Achiuwa, Bryan Antoine and Scottie Lewis. That Gaffney finds himself in the Top 15 should tell you what you need to know about him.
He’s been gaining plenty of traction lately from high-major programs. The St. John’s Red Storm were one of the first programs to offer him all the way back in 2016. But he received a slew of offers last summer from the Florida Gators, LSU Tigers, Seton Hall Pirates, Minnesota Golden Gophers, and many more. Recently, the Temple Owls, Pittsburgh Panthers and the Xavier Musketeers have offered him, as well.
From the Marquette perspective, he is the fifth point guard they’ve offered for the 2019 class. He joins a group that includes Mario McKinney Jr., D.J. Carton, James Bishop and Rocket Watts Jr. Marquette is looking to bring in more guards as their 2017 and 2018 classes did not bring in any point guards to the fray. The scholarship guards on the roster going into next year are Markus Howard, Greg Elliott and Sacar Anim. Transfers Joseph Chartouny and Koby McEwen are around too. Chartouny is a grad transfer, so he will be eligible to play next season, while McEwen will have to sit out next season. It is easy to understand why Marquette is loading up on the guard offers going into the year 2019, and Gaffney would be a great choice, if they are able to wrangle him into Milwaukee.