2023 five-star wing Mookie Cook commits to Oregon over Kentucky, Gonzaga
Oregon’s success on the recruiting trail continued Thursday as the Ducks added yet another elite prospect to the program.
Five-star wing Marquis “Mookie” Cook is from Portland but played his junior season at Compass Prep in Arizona. The top-five recruit will be returning home for college after announcing his commitment to the Ducks at the GEICO Nationals event in Florida.
Cook joins four-star point guard Jackson Shelstad (West Linn, Oregon) as the second member of the program’s 2023 class. He is the third top-35 prospect to give his pledge to the Ducks since June and the highest-rated commitment for Dana Altman since Bol Bol, who was also ranked fourth in the Rivals150, picked the team back in 2017.
"Honestly, he's just a great guy on and off the court," Cook said of Altman during his announcement on ESPNU. "The conversations me and him have, it just felt like the best fit."
The former Jefferson High School star has become one of the most highly-targeted recruits in the class and eventually selected Oregon over a final group that included Kentucky and Gonzaga.
Arizona, UCLA, USC, Michigan, Auburn, Kansas, Texas Tech, Illinois, Memphis and TCU are some of the other schools that offered and pursued the 6-foot-7 wing prospect.
Cook was once rated as high as the No. 2 prospect in the 2023 class and he has never been rated lower than seventh. Though he is still over a year away from joining the Ducks, Cook has made no secret about his plans for the future and how long he envisions being on campus in college.
“I want to be a one and done,” he previously told Cats Illustrated. “Of course things happen. I might need another year. You never know. That my goal to be a one and done player.”
Cook is now the ninth five-star recruit to commit to Oregon under Altman with 2022 center prospect Kel’el Ware being the most recent before Thursday. Ware, a McDonald’s All-American, is rated as the ninth-best prospect in the 2022 class.
The big wing has continued to improve his shooting ability during his junior season elevating his game to a new level in recent months. That has helped him continue to remain rated as one of the top recruits in his class.
"Cook has a very strong case for being number one in the class, as he’s playing some of the best basketball of his high school career as of late," Rivals analyst Travis Graf recently wrote about the new Oregon commit. "The AZ Compass Prep junior has been fantastic at both ends of the court, and really coming into his own as a spot-up shooter."
Cook's growth as a player has helped keep him in the conversation as the top junior recruit in the country, and he has been pleased with his understanding of the game over the course of the season.
"I would just say probably my catch and shoot and my reads," Cook previously told Rivals.com's Krysten Peek about where he has made the most improvement in his game. "Coming off the screen and stuff like that."
There has been some thought that Cook could reclassify to join Ware and four-star guard Dior Johnson as the third member of Oregon's 2022 recruiting class, but as of this point he remains in the 2023 group.