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1) This is where I provide my in-depth scouting report of Jesus Carralero. Just kidding. I'm not gonna do that mostly because I'm not capable of doing that. Carralero committed to Missouri on Sunday evening (seems fitting). He played five games at Campbell last year, so there's not a lot of recent sample size. His game seems to be well-rounded as he isn't a standout in any one category, but he's good in just about every category, ranking in the Big South's top ten in rebounding, assists, steals and blocks in his last full season.
The Carralero commitment isn't the news many Mizzou fans were expecting or hoping for on Sunday, but it brings up the point that I think needs to be hammered home: Dennis Gates just took a team made up of Kobe Brown, Nick Honor and "a bunch of mid-major players" to 25 wins and the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Brown and Honor were the only two that had ever played at the high-major level and both had by far their best college seasons. This follows a three-year stint in which Gates greatly improved Cleveland State's program which followed a long history, along with Charlton Young, of being part of Florida State's best period of basketball which included a lot of really good players who weren't blue-chip recruits. In other words, until he proves otherwise, if Dennis Gates thinks a guy can help his roster, he's earned the benefit of the doubt on that.
2) There is still quite a bit to be determined out of the transfer portal and with the basketball roster. I ran all that down right here. Rather than re-type it all, you can just click the link (after you sign up for a subscription if you don't already have one).
The big question everyone has is will Missouri still add a true big man. They've got Carralero and Aidan Shaw, who are 6-8 or bigger and add freshmen Trent Pierce and Jordan Butler. So they're not completely without size. First of all, I still believe they'll add someone taller than 6-foot-8 and talked about that in the post linked above. But also, it's not an absolute necessity. Obviously last year's team was not good at rebounding the ball and needs to be better at that this year. But that can be done without a guy who is 6-10. There were 15 players in college basketball who averaged 9.9 rebounds or more per game last year. Six of them were 6-foot-8 or smaller. More than half of the top 25 rebounders in college basketball were 6-foot-8 or shorter. It can be done. And on the offensive end, Gates' system may be more effective without a traditional big man on the floor due to the pace and the spacing it relies upon.
That's not to say Mizzou shouldn't go find a bigger player. I think it will. It's just to say that you don't absolutely have to have one on the floor for 40 minutes.
3) The NFL Draft has come and gone with just one Tiger hearing his name called. The Cleveland Browns picked Isaiah McGuire in the fourth-round, which was right in the range most had him pegged. Every mock draft I saw had McGuire as a third- or a fourth-round pick. That's in the range where he'd certainly be expected to make the Browns' active roster, but it's not an absolute guarantee. Martez Manuel signed a free agent deal with the Chiefs, DJ Coleman signed one with the Jaguars and longsnapper Jake Hoffman got a rookie camp invite from Kansas City. The chances of any of those guys sticking on the roster are probably pretty low, but they've at least got the shot. I'd give Coleman the best chance.
4) I posted this on Saturday morning, but I think it's worth revisiting. Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, Missouri has had 39 players drafted in the first three rounds. Eighteen of them were signed by Gary Pinkel. Pinkel has 46% of the high draft picks in that time frame in just 28% of the seasons. Sixteen of those players were drafted between 2009 and 2015, which means they were part of Missouri's best run of teams from 2006 to 2014. Pinkel signed and coached eight first-round draft picks. Missouri has had only 12 first-round picks that weren't signed by Pinkel and only seven since 1970.
Digging a little deeper, other than Pinkel, Missouri has had six seasons in which at least two players were drafted in the first three rounds. In only two of those seasons were more than two drafted in the first three rounds. The Tigers had five such seasons just between 2009 and 2015, including two seasons in which they had two first-rounders. Long story short, Missouri produced just as much highly drafted talent in those seven years as it has in the other 46 years of the modern draft.
5) McGuire came to Mizzou in the Class of 2019, which was the last one Barry Odom signed. He was one of three players (out of 22) to finish his career at Missouri. The others were Martez Manuel and Darius Robinson, who should be drafted next April. Three. Out of 22. That's dreadful. Of those that left, not one left for what anyone would consider a better program. Odom did bring some NFL talent to Mizzou and his recruiting overall was probably a little bit better than the Rivals rankings gave it credit for being, but the vast majority of those players were gone before this past season. Entering the 2023 season, there are just five players on the roster (Robinson, Chad Bailey, Brady Cook, Xavier Delgado, Javon Foster) who signed with Odom.
