Marquette Commit Sheek Pearson Reclassifies

Marquette University

If you’re a regular listener of the CBS Sports Eye On College Basketball podcast, then the latest Marquette men’s basketball recruiting news isn’t actually news to you, merely paying off on rumors flying around in the air. The news is such: Class of 2026 Marquette commit Sheek Pearson will not be waiting until the 2026-27 school year to join the Golden Eagles. Instead, he is reclassifying to the Class of 2025 and enrolling at MU for the 2025 Fall Semester and is eligible to play when Marquette opens

the season on November 3rd against Albany.

: Four-star big man and Marquette pledge Sheek Pearson will reclassify to 2025 and join the Golden Eagles this season.

Pearson is coming off a second consecutive Peach Jam title playing with @BradBealElite this summer.

https://t.co/cBy0EOgfaP pic.twitter.com/ElljPerSZm

— Brandon Jenkins (@BJenkins247) July 28, 2025

Sheek Pearson committed to Marquette back in mid-May. At the time, the 6’11”, 200 lb. forward was ranked #63 in the country by the 247 Sports Composite system. 247 had him at #85 internally, while On3 ranked him at #122 and ESPN put him at #66.

Today?

247 Composite: #53
247 Internal: #66
On3: #54
ESPN: #37

Those numbers are not long for this world, as they are his Class of 2026 rankings. Pearson isn’t going to drop into the exact same spots in the Class of 2025 rankings, but I think it’s safe to say that he’s not exactly going to drop out of the top 100, either.

This isn’t a perfect one-to-one comparison, but obviously adding Sheek Pearson to Marquette’s 2025 recruiting class improves their ranking in that department. Right now, MU is at #20 in 247 Sports’ team rankings. If we use the Class Calculator to add the #53 prospect, then that bumps MU’s total up to 62.84, good enough for #15 in the country. Not much of an improvement in the overall rankings, and maybe Pearson won’t actually be #53 when 247 finalizes their rankings, but hey: It would be more fun to say “top 15 recruiting class” instead of “top 20 class,” right?

Last thing.

I’m not 100% sure if Pearson’s actually going to play this season. If he is 6’11” and 200 pounds as 247 Sports says — or 6’10” 205 lb., like ESPN says even — then maaaaaaaybe Pearson’s not physically ready to tangle with 22 year olds in the paint in Big East play. There’s no official word or even unofficial word from Ben Steele at the Journal Sentinel as to what the plans are for Pearson. Perhaps it all comes down to what the plan was for Pearson when he committed back in May? Was the reclassification always the plan, and some stray pieces needed to move into place to make it official? Is this more of a late breaking decision, and thus makes things much more likely to just redshirt Pearson in 2025-26 and let him (and his bank account, hello House settlement money) get bigger?

Wanna watch four minutes of Pearson from EYBL games in May?

And now, the brand new scholarship/roster chart.

For the immediate future, the reclassification of Sheek Pearson has no effect on Marquette’s roster projections. The Golden Eagles still sit at one open spot for the 2026-27 school year after the commitments of Ethan Johnston and Nash Walker, which probably means that Shaka Smart is done recruiting for that season. And yes: I mean done as in no more freshmen and no transfers next spring, either.

We do start to get into a little bit of a downhill effect in the future, as having six guys on the same eligibility line will make things complicated for 2029 Shaka Smart. But that’s Future Shaka’s problem, not ours, and there’s an awful lot of things that can transpire between now and then, too.

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