Dwight Burke Commits to Marquette

Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel broke the news (LINK TO UPDATED STORY):

"Moving quickly to use the scholarship freed up by the pending transfer of Dameon Mason, the Marquette Golden Eagles have secured a verbal commitment from 6-foot-8 power forward Dwight Burke of St. Benedict Prep in Newark, N.J.Burke becomes the second big man to commit to the MU men's basketball program this week, joining 6-7 Jamil Lott of North Dakota State College of Science, and the final player in what has become a six-man 2005-’06 recruiting class for the Golden Eagles.

MU worked hard to secure Burke, who had recently been attracting interest from fellow Big East members Rutgers, South Florida and Pittsburgh. He had originally signed with East Carolina but was given a release when coach Bill Herrion was fired.

Like Lott, Burke is expected to provide athleticism and size for an MU frontcourt in need of both for the upcoming season. The Golden Eagles will lose their best big man, Marcus Jackson, to graduation and feature little in the way of experience in the post."

A Delaware native, Burke was listed among the nation's top 75 5th year players by Hoop Scoop after playing for Danny Hurley's nationally ranked St. Benedict Gray Bees last season. Previously, Burke played at Rice High School in New York where he averaged 7.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and one block per game. Dwight began his high school career at Christiana High in Delaware.

Late last year, the folks covering ECU hoops penned this article about Dwight Burke.