Spring and summer is the hot time for college basketball recruiting news, and Marquette men’s basketball is no exception to the rule. Ethan Johnston committed to play for the Golden Eagles back on May 7th as a part of the Class of 2026, and now we have another commitment to discuss.
Sheek Pearson, a top 100 forward out of Missouri, has made his pledge to play for head coach Shaka Smart.
247 Sports lists Pearson as a 6’11”, 200 pound forward. He hails from Saint Louis, where he attends John Burroughs School. He was born in Iowa and has bounced back and forth between Iowa and STL a little bit in his life, which probably helps explain why Iowa State was a pretty strong contender for Pearson’s services during his recruitment. As to his height and weight, Pearson was always tall for his age, but he was only about 5’11” five years ago, and even freshman year of high school, he was “only” 6’7”. Yes, that’s obviously very tall for a freshman, but when you still keep going to what he says is now 6’11”, 6’7” three years ago counts as “only.” That’s a lot of growing straight up in the air, so you can kind of see why his body hasn’t really done much in the way of putting on weight quite yet.
The fact that he hasn’t quite put on weight yet but show the basketball skills to play at a high level is probably why the recruiting services are pretty high on him. As mentioned 247 Sports’ Composite ranking has him at #63 in the country while they have him at #85 internally. In both situations, 247 has Pearson has a top 20 power forward prospect. On3’s Industry Ranking, their version of the Composite, ranks Pearson at #122 in the country and #14 amongst center prospects. ESPN has Pearson in their top 100 right now at #66 in the country and #4 amongst centers. Rivals is a little bit slow on the pick up, as they have a page for him, but nothing in the way of rankings.
Pearson elaborated to 247 Sports why he picked the Golden Eagles:
“From when they started recruiting me until now, they’ve been tremendous in staying in contact,” Pearson told 247Sports on his commitment to the Golden Eagles. “They came to see me and had me on campus. It wasn’t just about building a relationship with (Marquette assistant) CJ Rivers—I also liked how I connected with Shaka Smart. That played a big role in my decision. I like Coach Shaka’s background and the players he’s worked with in the past who resemble me.”
And here’s Adam Finkelstein, 247’s Director of Scouting with a summary of Pearson’s abilities:
Pearson is still relatively undeveloped physically and only just beginning to grow into his body, but he’s loaded with long-term tools and budding two-way versatility. He was measured at 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-1 wingspan last summer. In addition to that size, he’s mobile, agile, has good hands and touch. The most notable asset in his game right now may be his shot-blocking. He takes pride in protecting the rim, has good instincts for when to leave his feet, quick reactions, and the ability to patrol the lane from a pretty wide-radius. He’s a good natural mover, too, and should ideally have some versatility both from a positional standpoint and in terms of how he can guard ball-screens.
Offensively, he has some budding face-up skill, but it’s not yet totally polished or consistently translatable at this point. He has soft natural touch and some long-term shooting potential as he gets more consistent with his mechanics. He can also show signs of a passing instinct which could eventually translate into being able to play out of dribble-hand-offs and short-rolls. He’s more athletic in space than he is among bodies at this point, but still has value as a lob threat, offensive rebounder, and definitely as a rim-runner.
While Pearson is a work-in-progress across the board, increased muscle mass and physicality is the top order of business and could be a building block for increased productivity on both ends of the floor.
And now, the brand new scholarship chart.
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It’s not quite a like-for-like swap in and out situation, but adding Pearson to the roster in the fall of 2026 follows along after losing Ben Gold to the end of his eligibility the previous spring in terms of Big/Tall Guys On The Roster. We’ll have to wait and see where things go with Caedin Hamilton and Josh Clark during the 2025-26 season to see how Pearson fits in, but you’d like to think that a top 100 prospect should be able to contribute something out of the gate.
That does leave the Golden Eagles with two more open scholarship spots for the Class of 2026. Marquette’s top prospects for that class seem to be Vaughn Karvala, Alex Ebguonu, and JJ Andrews. Karvala, a 6’5” forward, is maybe the most interesting one to me, as he’s a 247 Composite top 100 prospect from Wisconsin. Egbuonu, a 6’5” forward ranked #84, seemed to be a priority for spring recruiting as Shaka Smart has already made a home visit to see him, while the commitment of Pearson may have an impact on Andrews, a top 40 shooting guard prospect at 6’6”, since they both play for Brad Beal Elite out of Saint Louis.
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