Class Of 2025 Guard Adrien Stevens Commits To Marquette (2024)

Summertime is always a heavy recruiting time for college basketball. With that in mind, we’re not surprised that Marquette men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart is now up to four Class of 2025 commitments since the start of June. The latest one? Guard Adrien Stevens, who just announced his pledge to Smart and Marquette. He chose the Golden Eagles over Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Villanova.

247 Sports lists Adrien Stevens as a 6’4”, 195 pound shooting guard. He attends The Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, which is about 15 miles away from Ed Cooley’s office. 247 has Stevens at #120 in the country in their Composite rankings, which makes him the #18 shooting guard and the #4 prospect in Maryland. Internally, they have Stevens a little bit higher overall at #94, but still #18 amongst shooting guards. That jump has him #3 in Maryland though, which is fun.

On3’s Industry Ranking has Stevens at #159 in the country, but they’re also listing him as a combo guard. That makes him the #11 combo guard prospect in the country, and internally, they don’t rank Stevens at all on a national level. Stevens is #8 amongst combo guards and #5 in Maryland, though.

Elsewhere in rankings, ESPN isn’t ranking Stevens, but they better On3’s three-star rating by rating him as a four-star guy. ESPN also sides with 247 in saying he’s a shooting guard, and it’s worth noting that On3’s Industry Ranking is only calculating with ESPN rating Stevens as a three-star prospect. Rivals is the outlier truly dragging down Stevens in the combination rankings, as they don’t have him rated or ranked at all right now. Get your act together, Rivals!

Stevens included Marquette in a cutdown to six schools back on July 9th. It’s not terribly surprising that the Golden Eagles came out ahead there, as Stevens included three programs — including Georgetown — that had only offered him in the two weeks previous to that cutdown list.

Dom Winters from 247 Sports got a chance to talk to Stevens in early August. Here’s what Stevens said about what he was looking for when deciding what school fit him best:

“I’m looking for the best opportunity to grow both on and off the court. The best opportunity to really showcase what I can do. I also think growth is really important. I definitely want to develop and reach my max potential. Wherever I go to school, that’ll be where I can accomplish those things while also being at a school where the coach thinks the same things, which is important.”

And here’s what he said about Marquette at the time:

“It’s a great opportunity to come into an environment where, you know, the main priority is growth as a person and as a player. I feel like Coach Shaka Smart made that clear, not just with me, but when he talks to other people about his program, he makes it clear that growth is the most important thing. Obviously, it’s a great opportunity to grow as a person. They believe I can be a guy who brings winning qualities. Marquette gives me another opportunity to do that at a high level. They continuously showed that they believed in me, and that’s what’s really important to me.”

I’m not going to tell you that this commitment seemed done and dusted when Stevens used very similar phrasing in his description of what he wanted and what Marquette was offered, but I am pointing out that it happened.

Here’s a scouting report that 247’s Brandon Jenkins provided after the Under Armour Association Finals in late July:

Ranked the No. 93 in the national 2025 class, Stevens had his winning qualities on full display. A physical 6-foot-4 guard out of Potomac (Md.) Bullis School, Stevens takes advantage of his intangibles on both ends of the floor.

Defensively, he is one who ball handlers have to be alert around. He gets into his man with physicality, makes life difficult on those he is guarding, and will take an opponent’s ball if they are loose enough with it. Offensively, he can drive the ball with clever moves in the paint and efficiently lets the game come to him. He is a prospect who can have a positive effect on a game’s outcome without tallying a lot of points.

Here’s four minutes of highlights of Stevens from this summer’s NBPA Top 100 Camp. I’d apologize for the tight focus of the camera, but I’m not the one who shot the video.

And now, the brand new scholarship chart!

“Hey, wait a minute, Andy. That gives Marquette 14 projected players in the 2025-26 school year! The NCAA scholarship limit is 13!”

Well, it was, that’s for sure.

The NCAA recently filed a settlement proposal for various anti-trust lawsuits, and that’s going to change some things. Most notably, it will eliminate scholarship limits in favor of roster limits, and it’s up to each school to decide how they want to handle scholarships under the roster limit. However, only the Power Four conferences are required to move to this system as well as begin revenue sharing with their athletes. As a member of the Big East, which is not a co-defendant in those lawsuits, Marquette can choose to do whatever they want here: Share revenue & have a roster limit of 15, or do not share revenue and ..... well, it’s unclear, but I presume it means staying at a scholarship limit of 13??

Stevens is the fourth Class of 2025 prospect to commit to Marquette, and that makes him #14 on the projected roster. That’s an unofficial sign that Marquette will be going with the roster limits and the revenue sharing, and it certainly seems like Cam Ward is the most likely option to be #15.