Marcus Walker to visit Fayetteville today

Kansas City (Mo.) O’Hara point guard Marcus Walker has

moved his official visit to Arkansas from Midnight Madness to Thursday (today), and he just finalized his top five.

Walker, 6-foot-2, 160 pounds, is rated the No. 20 point guard prospect in the country by Rivals.com. Last season, he averaged 27 points, 5 assists, 4 steals and 3 rebounds for O’Hare High School.

His outstanding play has earned him scholarship offers from Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, Duquesne, Kansas State, Nebraska and others. Tuesday, Walker finalized his top five and he bumped his Friday visit to Minnesota to take the visit to Arkansas today. His new top five, in no particular order, is Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas State, Nebraska and Duquesne.

“I’m going to Arkansas this weekend. No reason, I just need to get them in quick,” Walker said. “I just broke it down to that yesterday.”

Walker has taken an unofficial visit to Arkansas before, and he was impressed with the atmosphere. This will be his first trip back to Fayetteville in over six months.

“It was cool. I really didn’t get to go on campus or anything,” he said. “There were a lot of people at the game I went to. I really liked it.”

Walker was one of 18,602 people in attendance watch the Gators beat the Razorbacks 73-68 on Feb. 28, but Walker knows the Hawgs were a young group comprised mostly of sophomores and juniors.

Walker has a 2.4 GPA and has scored 16 on the ACT. The first time he took the test, he had never studied for it. He has taken ACT classes in hopes of reaching his goal, a 21. Right now, he is focused on raising his GPA because a few more points would put him on track to qualify academically.

Arkansas is after several other top point guards and hosted Jersey City (NJ) St. Anthony’s Sean McCurdy on an official visit this week. McCurdy is rated the No. 22 point guard and the No. 128 prospect by Rivals.com.

Miami Calusa Prep point guard Denis Clemente, 6-foot-1, 165 pounds has favored Arkansas for months, but recent reports have Cincinnati, Miami and Ohio State at the top of his list. At any rate, Clemente will visit Arkansas on Sept. 24 for the Alabama game weekend. Clemente is rated the No. 15 point guard in the country and the No. 90 prospect in the country by Rivals.com.

Chester (SC) point guard Devan Downey, 5-foot-9, 155 pounds and rated the No. 8 point guard and No. 42 overall prospect by Rivals.com, took an official visit to Arkansas on Sept. 10 after also visiting Tennessee. He is scheduled to visit Cincinnati this weekend. He will decide after he takes all of his official visits.

It came down to UNLV and Arkansas for Houston Gulf Shores Academy point guard Jovan Adams. Adams, 6-foot-1, 180 pounds, is rated the No. 2 point guard and the No. 19 prospect in America by Rivals.com.

Adams said he liked everything about Arkansas, but UNLV was in the city - an environment that was important enough to him to be the overriding factor in his decision.

Each of the above prospects reports a scholarship offer from Arkansas.

Most are taking their official visits early. Each prospect hopes to sign with the program of their choice during the early November Signing Period.

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