BIG EAST RECRUITING UPDATE: LOUISVILLE

February 21, 2008

VERBAL COMMITMENT ALERT: Mike Marra, (G) Northfield (Mass.) Mount Hermon School


Projected 2008-2009 Roster


Seniors: Andre McGee (PG), Terrence Williams (SF)
Juniors: Edgar Sosa (G), Jerry Smith (G), Derrick Caracter (BF), Earl Clark (G/F), Reginald Delk (G)
Sophomores: George Goode (F), Preston Knowles (G)
Freshmen: Melquan Bolding (G), Samardo Samuels (BF/C), Terrence Jennings (C), Kyle Kuric (G/F), Clarence Holloway (C), Jared Swopshire (SF)
2009 Commitment: Mike Marra (G)


With Rick Pitino moving his sights away from the 2008 class, Tyreke Evans included, to the class of 2009, it did not take the Louisville head coach long to score his first commitment from the 2009 class as Louisville Lands Sharpshooter (Louisville Courier-Journal) Mike Marra.


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Mike Marra, a 6'5 native of Smithfield (RI), is an athletic shooter for Northfield (Mass.) Mount Hermon School. According to his coach, John Carroll, Marra is averaging 28 points per game and has hit 55% from 3-pt range the last 11 games. Marra was also considering Providence, Massachusetts, Gonzaga, Wake Forest and Michigan, but after coach Rick Pitino came to watch him play this week, Marra decided to end the process early and commit to the Cards, who has been his leader for some time. Marra visited Louisville and Freedom Hall in December and they have been on his mind ever since.

Marra is the second player in the class of 2009 to commit for Louisville. NYC native Lamont 'MoMo' Jones, currently at American Christian school, committed during his sophomore season at Rice HS. However, Jones recently decided to re-open the process and is looking at schools such as Memphis (likely to land Tyreke Evans, his teammate at American Christian), Xavier, Pittsburgh, Florida State, among others.

The two immediate targets in the class of 2009 that Pitino and his staff will concentrate on are Seattle (WA) Franklin 5'11 point guard Peyton Siva and Miami (FL) Pace 6'8 forward Rakeem Buckles. Siva recently took a trip to Louisville for their game with Georgetown and spoke very highly of the experience.


It certainly was a busy, busy time to follow Louisville recruiting during the class of 2008 where Rick Pitino sealed commitments from Martez Walker, Jeff Withey, Melquan Bolding, Samardo Samuels, Kyle Kuric, Terrence Jennings and Jared Swopshire. Walker and Withey subsequently de-committed and the status of Bolding's commitment is up in the air at this point. The main topic of discussion of Louisville recruiting the last several months has been their chase for Tyreke Evans. For much of the last few years, Louisville had been considered the leader for the American Christian star. However, although he has still not committed to a school, Rick Pitino has seemingly resigned himself to the fact that Evans is likely to commit to one of the other finalists (likely Memphis).