4-Star guard M.J. Walker to announce decision on Wednesday

Virginia Tech forward Seth LeDay transferred from the program last week, opening up a scholarship for the upcoming 2017-18 basketball season.

Prior to the announcement, the Hokies offered 2017 4-star guard M.J. Walker, who is rated as the number 26 overall recruit in the nation, according to 247Sports.

With the recruiting class as currently constituted, Virginia Tech currently holds the 15th-best class in college basketball, as 4-star guards Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Wabissa Bede, along with 3-star forward P.J. Horne, have already signed their scholarship offers and will enroll at Virginia Tech this summer.

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M.J. Walker’s offer came literally out of nowhere. There was no sense that the Hokies were even in the mix to land him until he received an offer from Buzz Williams and the coaching staff and took an official visit on April 22nd.

At the time that the visit occurred, it was a questionable move, especially with there being no scholarships to offer Walker at the time.

Now, with the younger LeDay moving on, Walker seems to be the prime target to receive the open scholarship, as the Hokies are pinned in an unexpected late recruiting battle for one of the top shooting guards in the 2017 class.

The wrench that was thrown into all of this, however, was when Walker followed up his unexpected official visit to Virginia Tech with official visits to both Ohio State and most notably, UCLA. UCLA offered Walker a scholarship, and he took an official visit to Los Angeles on May 14th.

Since then, both Virginia Tech and UCLA appear to have separated themselves as the finalists for Walker, with UCLA trending forward as the favorite in the last 24 hours.

MJ Walker announces tomorrow. Consensus is VT or UCLA. Though recent CBs suggest the Bruins, this adds another wrinkle in the recruitment. https://t.co/R0pIOKEDn7
— Matej Sis (@MatejS247) May 23, 2017

As for the other wrinkle that Sis is referring to in this tweet: Aaron Holiday has announced that he is returning to UCLA next season. Holiday was a key player in the rotation last season for the Bruins, averaging 12.3 points in 26.4 minutes per game last season.

Could his return change the outlook on Walker’s decision on Wednesday morning? Probably not, but it is an interesting development this afternoon to keep in mind as we move closer to Walker making his final call on Wednesday morning at 11 AM ET in Jonesboro, Georgia.