Here's what Shaka Smart said about Marquette's newly signed 2024 men's basketball recruits

The Marquette men's basketball team has a unique 2024 recruiting class.

Not only do Damarius Owens and Royce Parham have versatile skill-sets that excite the MU coaching staff, but they are also teammates this season at Western Reserve Academy in Ohio.

Owens is an athletic 6-foot-8 slasher who grew up in upstate New York before deciding to attend boarding school. He committed to the Golden Eagles in February.

Parham, a 6-foot-8 prospect who has more traditional big man skills than Owens, grew up in Pittsburgh but decided he wanted another challenge and transferred to Western Reserve to play his senior season with his future teammate. Parham committed to MU in April.

Parham and Owens are also roommates.

"Which is unique and cool," MU head coach Shaka Smart said. "So they'll come in here with a terrific understanding of how to make each other better."

Owens and Parham officially signed with MU on Wednesday, meaning that Smart could comment publicly about his future players.

Here is what else Smart said:

Damarius Owens keeps getting better

Owens is a typical MU recruit under Smart in that his stock has risen significantly since he committed. Owens was a standout player on the elite Nike EYBL circuit over the summer with the City Rocks program.

When he committed to MU, Owens was the No. 149 prospect in the 2024 class according to the 247Sports composite ranking. He is now at No. 55.

Smart: "Damarius has taken a huge jump. He played 17-and-under AAU (after his sophomore year) and was playing behind some guys who were very good players and didn't get a ton of minutes on the team.

"It's one of the things that we appreciate about the high-school live periods in June, we get a chance to see guys with their high-school team. We fell in love with him at that point.

"And then his junior season he just kept getting better and better and then had a terrific AAU season as well."

Royce Parham has skills that Marquette uses

Parham is the No. 98 prospect according to the 247Sports composite rankings. But Smart is excited about how to use the big man.

Smart: "I remember the first time I saw him. It was in a back gym in Augusta (Georgia), not in the main area where the Peach Jam is but in one of the high-school gyms.

"He's just a bucket-getter. He puts the ball in the basket. He finds ways to score. Plays with a level of toughness and fight about him that's really, really old school. He can really play away from the basket, but he also can mix it up around the basket.

"He's a guy that will be able to play both the trigger spot (like Oso Ighodaro) and what we call our perimeter positions, which is all the other spots. Kind of along the lines of Ben (Gold). Different game than Ben. But he's got versatility where he can play out on the floor.

"But he also can be the one handling the ball, triggering actions, flashing, getting catches. He's a good passer. He's developing into a good shooter. Even at Western Reserve, he's shooting the ball better and better."

What is Shaka Smart's "signee indoctrination program"?

Smart: "I send those two guys videos every couple days of things that we're doing. Defensively, offensively, culturally.

"And now that they are signed we will start officially our signee indoctrination program, which is our way of a weekly basis, a different assistant coach takes it and we are teaching our incoming guys how we are and how we do things.

"And that's culturally first and foremost. That's defensively and that's offensively. So, for example, (MU assistant coach) Neill Berry in a given week might send defensive clips to Royce and Damarius of how we defend a pick-and-roll. And just show them, these are our guys defending a pick-and-roll during a game."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Damarius Owens and Royce Parham sign with Marquette men's basketball