Highly coveted wing Mark Mitchell, a senior-to-be who will play his final season of high school basketball at Sunrise Christian Academy, was in town this week for a visit with the Kansas basketball program.
The athletic 6-foot-8, 205-pound small forward who started his prep career at Bishop Miege posted a couple of tweets during his visit, including three photos of him in the blue KU uniform.
Mitchell is ranked No. 9 in the 2022 class by Rivals.com. He’s headed to Sunrise, where he will team with 2022 KU commit-ment Gradey Dick next season.
Mitchell recently told Tipton Edits that Duke, UCLA, UNC, KU, Oklahoma State and Missouri were the schools currently re-cruiting him the hardest.
He has several other visits planned this summer and also is currently planning to visit KU for Late Night in the Phog on Oct. 1.
KU Nation what y’all think?? #notcommitted pic.twitter.com/63uTvmmMDb
— Mark Mitchell (@Mark_mitchell25) June 16, 2021
**Class of 2023 recruiting**
Tuesday marked the first day in the current recruiting period that coaches could directly contact players in the 2023 class, and it’s been fast and furious since then.
Two of the more notable prospects contacted by KU’s coach-ing staff were five-star power forward Javonte Taylor, the No. 4-ranked player in the 2023 class per Rivals.com, and point guard Layden Blocker, who is headed to Sunrise Christian Academy for his junior season.
Rivals has Blocker ranked No. 33 in the 2023 class. He is also being recruited by Missouri, Kansas State, Arkansas, Oklaho-ma, Baylor, Gonzaga, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Stanford, Creighton and several others.
Taylor, a 6-foot-7, 195-pound power forward from Chicago, plays for the AAU program Mac Irvin Fire. The Mac Irvin social media accounts recently revealed that Taylor received 12 big time offers on Tuesday alone, including one from KU. The other programs who jumped in on Taylor were: Kentucky, Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan, Florida, Arizona, LSU, Michigan State, Maryland, Tulane and Nebraska.
Other Class of 2023 prospects KU recently reached out to in-clude: four-star guard Bryson Warren (No. 16 overall per Ri-vals), four-star guard Maki Johnson (No. 67), five-star forward Omaha Biliew, who hails from Omaha, Neb., and is ranked No. 2 overall by Rivals.com, and big men Jazz Gardner (No. 70) and Brandon Garrison (No. 32).
