Blue Demons strike gold again on recruiting front

DePaul head coach Dave Leitao yells to his team during the first half of an NCAA college basketball  game against Villanova, Tuesday, March 1, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

DePaul head coach Dave Leitao yells to his team during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Villanova, Tuesday, March 1, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The recruiting gods are finally smiling down on the DePaul men’s basketball program.

After whiffing on their top two targets in the class of 2018 last spring, DePaul Blue Demon head coach Dave Leitao landed local four-star recruit Terrence Shannon Jr. today to pair with fellow four-star recruit Romeo Weems who gave a verbal commitment to the program in late May.

247sports.com ranks the 6-foot-7-inch Shannon Jr. as the 90th-best recruit in his class. The athletic small forward graduated from Lincoln Park High School in 2018 (less than a mile from DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus), but reclassified to the 2019 recruiting class so he can spend a season at elite preparatory boarding school IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. This school has produced NBA players Dwight Powell, Jonathan Isaac, and Anfernee Simons.

Shannon Jr. hadn’t received a Division I basketball offer after his high school basketball season concluded last March, but began to garner attention after averaging 14.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.1 assists on the AAU circuit last spring and summer with the Chicago-based Mac Irvin Fire on the Nike EYBL circuit.

With the addition of Shannon Jr. coupled with Weems, 247sports.com currently has the Blue Demons 2019 recruiting class as the seventh-best in the nation. The Blue Demons hope they can form a dynamic one-two punch on the wing on a team that is beginning to look dangerous.

In 2019 when Weems and Shannon Jr. arrive, current sophomore big men Paul Reed and Jaylen Butz will be another year older and better, as will Flynn Cameron who will begin his redshirt freshman campaign next season. Sharp-shooting Jalen Coleman-Lands will be a senior and Arkansas transfer Darious Hall will still be around.

Don’t look now, but Leitao and the Blue Demons seem to have found their recruiting golden touch.