{"id":82692,"date":"2025-08-14T17:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T17:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/82692\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T17:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T17:18:07","slug":"marcus-spears-jr-son-of-espn-analyst-named-no-1-hoops-prospect-in-class-of-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/82692\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Spears Jr., Son of ESPN Analyst, Named No. 1 Hoops Prospect in Class of 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_fhpahvzu9\">ESPN announced the <a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/45968528\/boys-basketball-recruiting-top-25-high-school-players-regardless-class-2026-2027-2028\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">new No. 1 men&#8217;s basketball prospect<\/a> in its recruiting class of 2027 <a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/45968528\/boys-basketball-recruiting-top-25-high-school-players-regardless-class-2026-2027-2028\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> on Thursday, with Marcus Spears Jr. earning that honor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_fkzor3num\">His name may sound familiar, even if you aren&#8217;t a follower of high school basketball, because he is the son of ESPN NFL analyst Marcus Spears. Both of Spears Jr.&#8217;s parents were standout basketball players in their own rights, too. The former NFL star was the Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year for men&#8217;s basketball in high school, and his wife Alysha Smith, is a former first-round WNBA pick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_dbbpim2bp\">Spears Jr. is competing at Dynamic Prep in Irving, Texas. He&#8217;s a 6&#8242; 8&#8243; power forward, ranked as the No. 1 PF in the country for his class.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_hdniztcgs\">The previous No. 1 prospect of the Class of 2027, Babatunde Oladotun, recently reclassified to the Class of 2026, opening up that top spot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_owobetm1d\">Spears has already received offers from 13 college programs, <a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/Player\/marcus-spears-jr-46149740\/TimelineEvents\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to 247 Sports<\/a>. His most recent offers were from Kentucky, USC and Houston, among others.<\/p>\n<p>More College Basketball on Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN announced the new No. 1 men&#8217;s basketball prospect in its recruiting class of 2027 on Thursday, with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-82692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}