The Chamber would like to start by wishing all you super fans a happy homecoming. Hopefully PowerMizzou.com subscribers we'll get a chance to tell their former classmates (who The Chamber is going to go ahead and assume are much more wealthy, successful and good looking) about our little slice of cyberspace heaven. Remember, there is a referral reward program that is always running so why not get yourself a cool little bonus. The Chamber knows everyone loves a little something extra.
Speaking of extra, The Chamber is extra loaded this week. Gabe and Brian will stop by with their usual wit and wisdom. The newest member of the PowerMizzou staff is going to make his The Chamber debut as well. Let's hear a big PowerMizzou.com round of applause for Keegan Pope.
When I saw K.J. Santos’ tweet about “redshirting” at Tallahassee Community College this year, I reached out to a friend of mine that covers JuCo basketball and asked him how often a presumably-healthy and eligible Division I transfer sits out an entire season at the junior college level. To sum up his lengthy response: never.
I checked the TCC online roster, and K.J. Santos isn’t anywhere to be found, so I texted someone who knows that area and program pretty well, and he told me K.J. is not and will not be on the team this year. He was pretty short on details of what happened, but he did send me this:
“No JuCo coach in the country has ever or will ever sign a Division I transfer and redshirt him if he’s healthy and eligible. I’ll say this, someone mentioned to me last week that he was no longer on the roster and then he announced he was “redshirting” today.”
Said person told me that K.J. is enrolled at TCC this semester, but he’ll almost certainly either have to pay his own way at TCC during the second semester or transfer mid-year to another school. If he does sit out the entire season but stays enrolled in school for the full year, he’d have three years of eligibility at Mizzou.
I was set to interview K.J. last night, but I couldn’t get him on the phone and haven’t heard from him since then. I’ll keep reaching out to him and pass along info from that interview if it happens.
On another hoops recruiting note, I confirmed with Isiaih Mosley, Mario McKinney and EJ Liddell that they will be at Mizzou Madness on Saturday. From what I understand, Mizzou is pitching Liddell and McKinney pretty hard on joining fellow St. Louisans Jeremiah Tilmon, Torrence Watson and Javon Pickett in CoMo. I should be able to talk to each early next week to recap their visits and where Mizzou stands in their recruitment.
Here's Gabe DeArmond with info on basketball, football and ol' Linker.
Jericole Hellems is making a commitment somewhere at 5pm this evening. He visited South Carolina and North Carolina State. I don't think he ever officially visited Mizzou, but he's familiar with the program. It wouldn't be easy to make the numbers work, but Missouri could do it--especially if it knows things are over with Carte'Are Gordon. My initial reaction was that Missouri probably didn't have much of a chance. My expectation is NC State, but if he chose Mizzou it wouldn't shock me. Stay tuned.
We're anticipating quite a few guys in town for Mizzou Madness this weekend. Keegan Pope filled you in on who. Just guessing here (zero inside info) but a commitment from Mario McKinney wouldn't completely shock me. Mizzou is in good shape and has clearly made him a priority. They're also in excellent shape with EJ Liddell from what I'm told.
A future name to watch in the state for 2020 is Ethan Kilgore. He's 6-6, 190, listed as a shooting guard. He plays for Run GMC's 15U team right now and has gotten on quite a few radars. He has spoken with Cuonzo Martin and Chris Hollender at camp and reached out to us about the interest. He's got a lot of the area schools interested and he's planning some unofficial visits. Not sure if he'll develop into an offer guy, but it's a new name to watch. Will let you know what happens with him as the process plays out.
Also had someone tip me off to another 2020 prospect. Jordan Nesbitt out of Lutheran North. He's hearing a lot from Mizzou from what I'm told, but hasn't really started to get national attention quite yet. I don't know a ton about him yet, but he's 6-6 and from what I can tell looked like he averaged about 14 points a game as a freshman. We'll try to dig up some more info in the coming days.
Honestly we're really in a little bit of a dead period with recruiting. Hoops will pick back up with kids making it to campus and the early signing period a few weeks away. WIth football, it's going to be tough for much to happen with things the way they are on the field right now. Missouri's got to win some games. Have confirmed a few players who will be on campus though.
Commitment Daniel Parker Jr. is coming to town for the weekend.
In-state target Ronnie Perkins is going to be in town again. Really tough to get a read on where things stand with him. How much is he here for recruiting and how much is he here for his brother? It seems we go back and forth every few weeks on "Missouri's in great shape" and "Missouri seems like a long shot." Anything at this point is kind of a guess on Perkins, but I wouldn't expect anything to wrap up quickly.
Recent running back offer Jeremy Banks will also be in town. We'll do our best catching up with him after the visit to see where things stand. It will be an unofficial for Banks.
The Tigers appear to be hosting the vast majority of official visits after the season. The simple fact is, you don't want to bring a whole bunch of kids in to see a half empty stadium. The more visits you can do after the season, the better with where they stand right now. As we confirm officials, we'll definitely pass those on, but we really don't expect many during the season unless kids just can't make it work any other time.
I'm not sure if I should put this in here cause it's not exactly a normal Chamber-type topic, but honestly I was blown away at all the interest and talk about Gary Link's firing (and make no mistake, that's what "relieved of his duties" means) so people are obviously interested and I guess I should pass along what I know.
I don't think there was any one specific thing that led to this. It's something that seems to have building for a while. Link's responsibilities were reduced quite some time ago by Jim Sterk (basically he had no duties with TSF/fundraising anymore, hadn't been attending any of the golf tournaments or events around the state). There was some talk over the summer that he wouldn't be broadcasting basketball, but that subsided. But the point is, this seems to be something that was kind of simmering for quite some time. I can't tell you for sure if there was some tipping point incident or exactly what led to it happening now.
I can tell you it didn't have anything to do with Link being too strong a supporter of Kim Anderson. That wasn't true. Everybody knew it was time for that to end. That's one rumor I'm comfortable putting to rest.
Speaking of extra, The Chamber is extra loaded this week. Gabe and Brian will stop by with their usual wit and wisdom. The newest member of the PowerMizzou staff is going to make his The Chamber debut as well. Let's hear a big PowerMizzou.com round of applause for Keegan Pope.
When I saw K.J. Santos’ tweet about “redshirting” at Tallahassee Community College this year, I reached out to a friend of mine that covers JuCo basketball and asked him how often a presumably-healthy and eligible Division I transfer sits out an entire season at the junior college level. To sum up his lengthy response: never.
I checked the TCC online roster, and K.J. Santos isn’t anywhere to be found, so I texted someone who knows that area and program pretty well, and he told me K.J. is not and will not be on the team this year. He was pretty short on details of what happened, but he did send me this:
“No JuCo coach in the country has ever or will ever sign a Division I transfer and redshirt him if he’s healthy and eligible. I’ll say this, someone mentioned to me last week that he was no longer on the roster and then he announced he was “redshirting” today.”
Said person told me that K.J. is enrolled at TCC this semester, but he’ll almost certainly either have to pay his own way at TCC during the second semester or transfer mid-year to another school. If he does sit out the entire season but stays enrolled in school for the full year, he’d have three years of eligibility at Mizzou.
I was set to interview K.J. last night, but I couldn’t get him on the phone and haven’t heard from him since then. I’ll keep reaching out to him and pass along info from that interview if it happens.
On another hoops recruiting note, I confirmed with Isiaih Mosley, Mario McKinney and EJ Liddell that they will be at Mizzou Madness on Saturday. From what I understand, Mizzou is pitching Liddell and McKinney pretty hard on joining fellow St. Louisans Jeremiah Tilmon, Torrence Watson and Javon Pickett in CoMo. I should be able to talk to each early next week to recap their visits and where Mizzou stands in their recruitment.
Here's Gabe DeArmond with info on basketball, football and ol' Linker.
Jericole Hellems is making a commitment somewhere at 5pm this evening. He visited South Carolina and North Carolina State. I don't think he ever officially visited Mizzou, but he's familiar with the program. It wouldn't be easy to make the numbers work, but Missouri could do it--especially if it knows things are over with Carte'Are Gordon. My initial reaction was that Missouri probably didn't have much of a chance. My expectation is NC State, but if he chose Mizzou it wouldn't shock me. Stay tuned.
We're anticipating quite a few guys in town for Mizzou Madness this weekend. Keegan Pope filled you in on who. Just guessing here (zero inside info) but a commitment from Mario McKinney wouldn't completely shock me. Mizzou is in good shape and has clearly made him a priority. They're also in excellent shape with EJ Liddell from what I'm told.
A future name to watch in the state for 2020 is Ethan Kilgore. He's 6-6, 190, listed as a shooting guard. He plays for Run GMC's 15U team right now and has gotten on quite a few radars. He has spoken with Cuonzo Martin and Chris Hollender at camp and reached out to us about the interest. He's got a lot of the area schools interested and he's planning some unofficial visits. Not sure if he'll develop into an offer guy, but it's a new name to watch. Will let you know what happens with him as the process plays out.
Also had someone tip me off to another 2020 prospect. Jordan Nesbitt out of Lutheran North. He's hearing a lot from Mizzou from what I'm told, but hasn't really started to get national attention quite yet. I don't know a ton about him yet, but he's 6-6 and from what I can tell looked like he averaged about 14 points a game as a freshman. We'll try to dig up some more info in the coming days.
Honestly we're really in a little bit of a dead period with recruiting. Hoops will pick back up with kids making it to campus and the early signing period a few weeks away. WIth football, it's going to be tough for much to happen with things the way they are on the field right now. Missouri's got to win some games. Have confirmed a few players who will be on campus though.
Commitment Daniel Parker Jr. is coming to town for the weekend.
In-state target Ronnie Perkins is going to be in town again. Really tough to get a read on where things stand with him. How much is he here for recruiting and how much is he here for his brother? It seems we go back and forth every few weeks on "Missouri's in great shape" and "Missouri seems like a long shot." Anything at this point is kind of a guess on Perkins, but I wouldn't expect anything to wrap up quickly.
Recent running back offer Jeremy Banks will also be in town. We'll do our best catching up with him after the visit to see where things stand. It will be an unofficial for Banks.
The Tigers appear to be hosting the vast majority of official visits after the season. The simple fact is, you don't want to bring a whole bunch of kids in to see a half empty stadium. The more visits you can do after the season, the better with where they stand right now. As we confirm officials, we'll definitely pass those on, but we really don't expect many during the season unless kids just can't make it work any other time.
I'm not sure if I should put this in here cause it's not exactly a normal Chamber-type topic, but honestly I was blown away at all the interest and talk about Gary Link's firing (and make no mistake, that's what "relieved of his duties" means) so people are obviously interested and I guess I should pass along what I know.
I don't think there was any one specific thing that led to this. It's something that seems to have building for a while. Link's responsibilities were reduced quite some time ago by Jim Sterk (basically he had no duties with TSF/fundraising anymore, hadn't been attending any of the golf tournaments or events around the state). There was some talk over the summer that he wouldn't be broadcasting basketball, but that subsided. But the point is, this seems to be something that was kind of simmering for quite some time. I can't tell you for sure if there was some tipping point incident or exactly what led to it happening now.
I can tell you it didn't have anything to do with Link being too strong a supporter of Kim Anderson. That wasn't true. Everybody knew it was time for that to end. That's one rumor I'm comfortable putting to rest.
