PETE SCANTLEBURY ON FOOTBALL RECRUITING
We'll have quite a bit over the next couple of weeks on junior day visitors, but this is kind of our intro to the 2014 cycle. At the "official" start of any recruiting cycle -- around this time, following Signing Day for the previous class -- information is readily available, but it's much harder to get a "read" on most recruits at this early stage. The ones with offers talk up nearly any school that's extended one, and the ones without offers sound like they'll commit to whichever school offers first.
So, the information in this Chamber may not be as insightful as it will be a few weeks from now. However, things will really heat up around Missouri's Junior Day. That will occur on March 2nd, and sources have told me the Tigers' staff are trying to make it more "exclusive" this year. I think a big reason for that is the team needs to make junior day a bigger draw for out-of-state recruits. Last year, I heard from a few recruits' parents that Missouri's junior day didn't match up to that of other SEC schools, in terms of "prestige" and other factors. It seems that this year, in order to get more out-of-state recruits to get on campus earlier in the cycle, the Tigers' staff is attempting to change that.
As of now, the biggest out-of-state name that is confirmed to visit is O'Fallon (Ill.) defensive end Dewayne Hendrixhttp://rivals.yahoo.com/missouri/football/recruiting/player-Dewayne-Hendrix-144940. The four-star isn't THAT far out of state, but Hendrix told me on Wednesday that he's already confirmed for March 2nd and won't miss it.
Missouri offered Hendrix after his junior season, and was one of his first offers.
"I was just getting letters, but then they had offered me," Hendrix said. "I was hoping they would offer me."
Hendrix was offered by Iowa this week, and is visiting Tennessee this weekend. He's expecting an offer before he leaves Knoxville. In addition, Florida State, he said, feels close to offering.
"At first, all the attention was kind of crazy, but now I'm used to it," Hendrix said.
The 6-foot-5, 240-pound defensive end said Missouri's biggest pitch so far has to do with the Smith boys on San Francisco. Hendrix said their success in the NFL boosts Missouri's standing in his eyes, but right now, he "just like(s) them all right now."
"I haven't thought about any leaders," Hendrix said.
Things may start to come into focus for Hendrix and Missouri by March 2nd.
-- Another recent in-state offer for 2014 was Lee's Summit West offensive tackle Kevin Pendletonhttp://rivals.yahoo.com/missouri/football/recruiting/player-Kevin-Pendleton-147328. I'll have a full story on Pendleton this weekend, but I wanted to pass along this information.
Pendleton transferred from Lincoln Prep to West before this season (He told me he really thinks 2013 signee Charles Harris is going to do well at Missouri). He didn't win the starting job until week six of the season, so when Missouri came through with an offer on Signing Day, he said it took him by surprise.
"Coach Boehm called me over when I was in weights class with our offensive line coach," Pendleton said. "He called Coach Pinkel, but I didn't know who he was. When I found out it was Pinkel, I thought it was just for info on junior day. Then, he said it was a great day, and I thought he was talking about my teammates signing, but then he said, 'I hope you can do that with us next year. I'm offering you a full scholarship.'"
In addition to Missouri, Pendleton said Nebraska (who he called a "huge one" in reference to how much they're recruiting him), Kansas State, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Illinois have expressed interest. He's visiting Nebraska soon, although it hasn't been scheduled yet.
So far, the only for-sure visit is to Missouri on March 2nd, and there's plenty of family connections for him in Columbia.
"My dad went to Mizzou," Pendleton said. "He played football his freshman year but got hurt and transferred to Arkansas-Pine Bluff. He tore his ACL. My grandpa also ran track at Mizzou."
Pendleton also has an aunt that went to Kansas, but right now, he hasn't expressed much interest in the Jayhawks.
Pendleton said Missouri is his leader right now, but that's mainly because they are his only offer. One thing he won't do, however, is rush into a decision.
"I was talking to Nick Ramirez," Pendleton said. "One of his big regrets was committing too early, because then his other offers pulled away and he made a rush decision in the end. Talking with him has helped a lot, but I'll definitely make a decision by next season or right after."
BRIAN AUSTIN ON BASKETBALL RECRUITING
There has been quite a bit of news regarding basketball recruiting this week so I am going to run down everything so we are all on the same page.
Wednesday night just before the Tigers tipped off at Mississippi St. 2014 Little Rock (Ark.) Parkview PG Anton Beard decommitted from Missouri and will reopen his recruitment. Before he committed to Missouri Beard had offers from LSU, Memphis, Georgetown, Florida St., and Tennessee among others. Now that Beard is back on the market he is likely to hear from even more schools.
Usually when a decommitment happens the school that was decommitted from ends up out of the equation, but in this instance that does not appear to be the case. Beard told me in a message that the Tigers are still one of the schools that he is interested in. Also, Beard's AAU coach, Norton Hurd, had this to say. "Parents want Anton Beard to explore all options before making a final decision," Hurd told Rivals.com via text message. "Missouri coaching staff has been great, special thanks to Tim Fuller." With that said Missouri might end up out of the equation when all is said and done, but that does not appear to be the case right now.
With Beard reopening his recruitment Missouri is back to having three scholarships available in 2014. That is, if players matriculate through Mizzou by the book. Beard's decommitment also opens the door for Missouri to get back in on other point guards in the class of 2014. I traded messages with Springfield (Ill.) Lanphier point guard Larry Austin who told me Mizzou is now back in the picture for him. In fact, the Mizzou coaches called his dad two nights ago and text Larry yesterday morning. Austin is focusing mostly on his season right now as Lanphier prepares for the stretch run leading up to regionals, but Mizzou is now a player with Illinois, Kansas St., Oklahoma St., Memphis, Iowa, and Tennessee among others.
Before the Beard news came up this week the biggest question around the class of 2014 was the mysterious case of Dwayne Morgan. On two different occasions over the last several weeks reports surfaced naming Morgan's finalists with no sign of Missouri. It caught many off guard because the Tigers were originally one of Morgan's final six. After talking with Morgan's AAU coach, Dwayne Wise, a few different times and being told that nothing had changed as far as he knew Wise checked with Morgan's mom who told him that Missouri is still under consideration, but a visit has not been set up yet.
Coaches have not been on the road much recently, but they did make trips to see 2015 Blue Springs (Mo.) South forward Devin Booker. Booker continues to be one of if not the top target for Missouri in the 2014 class and he is now hearing more from big time programs. Booker told me he will take visits to North Carolina on February 23, Duke on February 24, and Florida on March 2. He added that he will most likely take some additional visits, but he does not know when or where yet.
Due to the uncertainty surrounding Phil Pressey and the always present possibility that unexpected roster changes can happen the Tigers are continuing to keep in contact with a handful of 2013 targets. The biggest name to emerge in that category is Richardson (Tx.) Berkner guard Kendal Yancy-Harris, who had high interest in Mizzou before he committed to USC. Now, with USC coach Kevin O'Neil being fired, Yancy-Harris has opened up his recruitment again somewhat. There is a possibility that Yancy-Harris could still stick with USC, but a number of schools have checked in with him recently, including Mizzou. A couple other names that have emerged that Mizzou is following are 22 Feet Academy (Ky.) guard Petar Rusic and Cordia School (Ky.) guard Emmanuel Owootoah. I am working to get more info on the last two players, but I have heard enough to at least share the names.
Last thing this week. Mizzou recently offered 2015 Cleveland (Oh.) Villa Angela St. Joseph power forward Carlton Bragg according to his AAU coach Michael Duncan. It's very early in the process for Bragg, but it can not hurt Mizzou that they were the second school to offer a scholarship. Here's what Eric Bossi had to say about Bragg. "Bragg has a big ceiling and is tracking as a potential top 50 type prospect right now. Still quite thin but a very mobile big man with some skill and good overall athleticism. Runs floor, decent touch to about 12 feet, good feet and hands."
GABE DeARMOND ON MIZZOU/ARKANSAS, ETC.
Brian and Pete covered the recruiting news. I do want to highlight one thing first, though. Some may have missed the announcement a couple of weeks ago about the Rivals Camp Serieshttp://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1460017. There are going to be 21 of these across the country, including one in St. Louis that Brian, Danny and I will be at. This is a big deal. We're going to have a chance to see all kinds of talent and because there are 21 of them all over the country, almost every kid can get to one of them. They're free to kids, which is different than many of the other camps, so we're hoping participation will be higher. A lot of these camps cater to the four- and five-star kids. And while many of those kids will be at these events, it's also going to be a chance to see some of the more local and regional recruits that Missouri tends to be in on more often. So I think this will be something valuable for you guys over the next few months.
*With that said, I'll move on to tomorrow's basketball game. First of all, I'm kind of bummed the first game against Arkansas is there. I kind of wanted it to be here to see what the reaction at Mizzou Arena would be the first time Mike Anderson faced the Tigers. It will be fun on March 4th, but it probably would have been even more fun if the two teams hadn't yet played.
I'll get into some keys to the game in a minute, but first let me state my thoughts on Anderson. The days after he left, I was with you guys. The way he did it, I lost some respect and it just seemed wrong. But honestly, now, I can look at it with some perspective. Mike took over a program that was in complete shambles. I mean, in my 30 years, Missouri hoops had never been worse than it was when Quin Snyder left after the 2005 season. The Tigers were terrible on the court and a joke off of it. And Mike Anderson restored that program to the point where it made three straight NCAA Tournaments and was a top 25 regular. I understand that it will take some people longer than others, but eventually, I think Mike will be respected as a guy that put Missouri back on the map. He also might be viewed as a guy who got out at the right time and handed it over to a guy that actually did better than he did. But the last couple of years aren't possible without what Anderson did for the five years before that. Again, I get that some people hate him and I understand you have your reasons. Just wanted to offer my thoughts.
Now, how about this game? First of all, Bud Walton is a good place to watch a game when it's full and it's going to be full on Saturday. The Razorbacks are a pretty darn good team down there.
I think the Tigers could have a bit of an advantage because Phil Pressey knows Anderson's system and he knows what Arkansas is going to try to do to him. That said, Phil's problems have come when he has allowed teams to speed him up and you know Arkansas is going to do that. If Phil's going too fast and trying to do too much the Tigers could turn it over a lot and it could get ugly. But if he can carve up the press, Bowers and Ross and Bell and Oriakhi and Brown could get a whole lot of layups. Not exactly groundbreaking that Pressey is the key to a Missouri game.
From watching Anderson's teams for a few years, we all know they have one major weakness: They can't rebound. They don't really even try to rebound. What Missouri does well is rebound. They had a two or three game slump on the glass, but they did it well against Ole Miss and they dominated Mississippi State. The Tigers could get a TON of points off second chances. Anderson always talked about adding rebounds and turnovers together. If his team won that total, he was happy (in other words, if they were outrebounded by 12 but forced 13 more turnovers than the opposition, that was good). So I'll go with that number tomorrow. That's a big key. Missouri will win the rebounding battle. They will probably lose the turnover battle. The key is which number is bigger.
A week ago, I'd have given Missouri a 10% chance of winning this game. After the performance at Mississippi State, I might upgrade that to 20%. But still, it will be an uphill battle. If Oriakhi and Bowers can combine for 30 and 20, Missouri wins. I honestly won't be shocked if the Tigers win. They're the more talented team. That said, I simply can't pick them to win. My prediction is Arkansas 77, Missouri 65.
We'll have quite a bit over the next couple of weeks on junior day visitors, but this is kind of our intro to the 2014 cycle. At the "official" start of any recruiting cycle -- around this time, following Signing Day for the previous class -- information is readily available, but it's much harder to get a "read" on most recruits at this early stage. The ones with offers talk up nearly any school that's extended one, and the ones without offers sound like they'll commit to whichever school offers first.
So, the information in this Chamber may not be as insightful as it will be a few weeks from now. However, things will really heat up around Missouri's Junior Day. That will occur on March 2nd, and sources have told me the Tigers' staff are trying to make it more "exclusive" this year. I think a big reason for that is the team needs to make junior day a bigger draw for out-of-state recruits. Last year, I heard from a few recruits' parents that Missouri's junior day didn't match up to that of other SEC schools, in terms of "prestige" and other factors. It seems that this year, in order to get more out-of-state recruits to get on campus earlier in the cycle, the Tigers' staff is attempting to change that.
As of now, the biggest out-of-state name that is confirmed to visit is O'Fallon (Ill.) defensive end Dewayne Hendrixhttp://rivals.yahoo.com/missouri/football/recruiting/player-Dewayne-Hendrix-144940. The four-star isn't THAT far out of state, but Hendrix told me on Wednesday that he's already confirmed for March 2nd and won't miss it.
Missouri offered Hendrix after his junior season, and was one of his first offers.
"I was just getting letters, but then they had offered me," Hendrix said. "I was hoping they would offer me."
Hendrix was offered by Iowa this week, and is visiting Tennessee this weekend. He's expecting an offer before he leaves Knoxville. In addition, Florida State, he said, feels close to offering.
"At first, all the attention was kind of crazy, but now I'm used to it," Hendrix said.
The 6-foot-5, 240-pound defensive end said Missouri's biggest pitch so far has to do with the Smith boys on San Francisco. Hendrix said their success in the NFL boosts Missouri's standing in his eyes, but right now, he "just like(s) them all right now."
"I haven't thought about any leaders," Hendrix said.
Things may start to come into focus for Hendrix and Missouri by March 2nd.
-- Another recent in-state offer for 2014 was Lee's Summit West offensive tackle Kevin Pendletonhttp://rivals.yahoo.com/missouri/football/recruiting/player-Kevin-Pendleton-147328. I'll have a full story on Pendleton this weekend, but I wanted to pass along this information.
Pendleton transferred from Lincoln Prep to West before this season (He told me he really thinks 2013 signee Charles Harris is going to do well at Missouri). He didn't win the starting job until week six of the season, so when Missouri came through with an offer on Signing Day, he said it took him by surprise.
"Coach Boehm called me over when I was in weights class with our offensive line coach," Pendleton said. "He called Coach Pinkel, but I didn't know who he was. When I found out it was Pinkel, I thought it was just for info on junior day. Then, he said it was a great day, and I thought he was talking about my teammates signing, but then he said, 'I hope you can do that with us next year. I'm offering you a full scholarship.'"
In addition to Missouri, Pendleton said Nebraska (who he called a "huge one" in reference to how much they're recruiting him), Kansas State, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Illinois have expressed interest. He's visiting Nebraska soon, although it hasn't been scheduled yet.
So far, the only for-sure visit is to Missouri on March 2nd, and there's plenty of family connections for him in Columbia.
"My dad went to Mizzou," Pendleton said. "He played football his freshman year but got hurt and transferred to Arkansas-Pine Bluff. He tore his ACL. My grandpa also ran track at Mizzou."
Pendleton also has an aunt that went to Kansas, but right now, he hasn't expressed much interest in the Jayhawks.
Pendleton said Missouri is his leader right now, but that's mainly because they are his only offer. One thing he won't do, however, is rush into a decision.
"I was talking to Nick Ramirez," Pendleton said. "One of his big regrets was committing too early, because then his other offers pulled away and he made a rush decision in the end. Talking with him has helped a lot, but I'll definitely make a decision by next season or right after."
BRIAN AUSTIN ON BASKETBALL RECRUITING
There has been quite a bit of news regarding basketball recruiting this week so I am going to run down everything so we are all on the same page.
Wednesday night just before the Tigers tipped off at Mississippi St. 2014 Little Rock (Ark.) Parkview PG Anton Beard decommitted from Missouri and will reopen his recruitment. Before he committed to Missouri Beard had offers from LSU, Memphis, Georgetown, Florida St., and Tennessee among others. Now that Beard is back on the market he is likely to hear from even more schools.
Usually when a decommitment happens the school that was decommitted from ends up out of the equation, but in this instance that does not appear to be the case. Beard told me in a message that the Tigers are still one of the schools that he is interested in. Also, Beard's AAU coach, Norton Hurd, had this to say. "Parents want Anton Beard to explore all options before making a final decision," Hurd told Rivals.com via text message. "Missouri coaching staff has been great, special thanks to Tim Fuller." With that said Missouri might end up out of the equation when all is said and done, but that does not appear to be the case right now.
With Beard reopening his recruitment Missouri is back to having three scholarships available in 2014. That is, if players matriculate through Mizzou by the book. Beard's decommitment also opens the door for Missouri to get back in on other point guards in the class of 2014. I traded messages with Springfield (Ill.) Lanphier point guard Larry Austin who told me Mizzou is now back in the picture for him. In fact, the Mizzou coaches called his dad two nights ago and text Larry yesterday morning. Austin is focusing mostly on his season right now as Lanphier prepares for the stretch run leading up to regionals, but Mizzou is now a player with Illinois, Kansas St., Oklahoma St., Memphis, Iowa, and Tennessee among others.
Before the Beard news came up this week the biggest question around the class of 2014 was the mysterious case of Dwayne Morgan. On two different occasions over the last several weeks reports surfaced naming Morgan's finalists with no sign of Missouri. It caught many off guard because the Tigers were originally one of Morgan's final six. After talking with Morgan's AAU coach, Dwayne Wise, a few different times and being told that nothing had changed as far as he knew Wise checked with Morgan's mom who told him that Missouri is still under consideration, but a visit has not been set up yet.
Coaches have not been on the road much recently, but they did make trips to see 2015 Blue Springs (Mo.) South forward Devin Booker. Booker continues to be one of if not the top target for Missouri in the 2014 class and he is now hearing more from big time programs. Booker told me he will take visits to North Carolina on February 23, Duke on February 24, and Florida on March 2. He added that he will most likely take some additional visits, but he does not know when or where yet.
Due to the uncertainty surrounding Phil Pressey and the always present possibility that unexpected roster changes can happen the Tigers are continuing to keep in contact with a handful of 2013 targets. The biggest name to emerge in that category is Richardson (Tx.) Berkner guard Kendal Yancy-Harris, who had high interest in Mizzou before he committed to USC. Now, with USC coach Kevin O'Neil being fired, Yancy-Harris has opened up his recruitment again somewhat. There is a possibility that Yancy-Harris could still stick with USC, but a number of schools have checked in with him recently, including Mizzou. A couple other names that have emerged that Mizzou is following are 22 Feet Academy (Ky.) guard Petar Rusic and Cordia School (Ky.) guard Emmanuel Owootoah. I am working to get more info on the last two players, but I have heard enough to at least share the names.
Last thing this week. Mizzou recently offered 2015 Cleveland (Oh.) Villa Angela St. Joseph power forward Carlton Bragg according to his AAU coach Michael Duncan. It's very early in the process for Bragg, but it can not hurt Mizzou that they were the second school to offer a scholarship. Here's what Eric Bossi had to say about Bragg. "Bragg has a big ceiling and is tracking as a potential top 50 type prospect right now. Still quite thin but a very mobile big man with some skill and good overall athleticism. Runs floor, decent touch to about 12 feet, good feet and hands."
GABE DeARMOND ON MIZZOU/ARKANSAS, ETC.
Brian and Pete covered the recruiting news. I do want to highlight one thing first, though. Some may have missed the announcement a couple of weeks ago about the Rivals Camp Serieshttp://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1460017. There are going to be 21 of these across the country, including one in St. Louis that Brian, Danny and I will be at. This is a big deal. We're going to have a chance to see all kinds of talent and because there are 21 of them all over the country, almost every kid can get to one of them. They're free to kids, which is different than many of the other camps, so we're hoping participation will be higher. A lot of these camps cater to the four- and five-star kids. And while many of those kids will be at these events, it's also going to be a chance to see some of the more local and regional recruits that Missouri tends to be in on more often. So I think this will be something valuable for you guys over the next few months.
*With that said, I'll move on to tomorrow's basketball game. First of all, I'm kind of bummed the first game against Arkansas is there. I kind of wanted it to be here to see what the reaction at Mizzou Arena would be the first time Mike Anderson faced the Tigers. It will be fun on March 4th, but it probably would have been even more fun if the two teams hadn't yet played.
I'll get into some keys to the game in a minute, but first let me state my thoughts on Anderson. The days after he left, I was with you guys. The way he did it, I lost some respect and it just seemed wrong. But honestly, now, I can look at it with some perspective. Mike took over a program that was in complete shambles. I mean, in my 30 years, Missouri hoops had never been worse than it was when Quin Snyder left after the 2005 season. The Tigers were terrible on the court and a joke off of it. And Mike Anderson restored that program to the point where it made three straight NCAA Tournaments and was a top 25 regular. I understand that it will take some people longer than others, but eventually, I think Mike will be respected as a guy that put Missouri back on the map. He also might be viewed as a guy who got out at the right time and handed it over to a guy that actually did better than he did. But the last couple of years aren't possible without what Anderson did for the five years before that. Again, I get that some people hate him and I understand you have your reasons. Just wanted to offer my thoughts.
Now, how about this game? First of all, Bud Walton is a good place to watch a game when it's full and it's going to be full on Saturday. The Razorbacks are a pretty darn good team down there.
I think the Tigers could have a bit of an advantage because Phil Pressey knows Anderson's system and he knows what Arkansas is going to try to do to him. That said, Phil's problems have come when he has allowed teams to speed him up and you know Arkansas is going to do that. If Phil's going too fast and trying to do too much the Tigers could turn it over a lot and it could get ugly. But if he can carve up the press, Bowers and Ross and Bell and Oriakhi and Brown could get a whole lot of layups. Not exactly groundbreaking that Pressey is the key to a Missouri game.
From watching Anderson's teams for a few years, we all know they have one major weakness: They can't rebound. They don't really even try to rebound. What Missouri does well is rebound. They had a two or three game slump on the glass, but they did it well against Ole Miss and they dominated Mississippi State. The Tigers could get a TON of points off second chances. Anderson always talked about adding rebounds and turnovers together. If his team won that total, he was happy (in other words, if they were outrebounded by 12 but forced 13 more turnovers than the opposition, that was good). So I'll go with that number tomorrow. That's a big key. Missouri will win the rebounding battle. They will probably lose the turnover battle. The key is which number is bigger.
A week ago, I'd have given Missouri a 10% chance of winning this game. After the performance at Mississippi State, I might upgrade that to 20%. But still, it will be an uphill battle. If Oriakhi and Bowers can combine for 30 and 20, Missouri wins. I honestly won't be shocked if the Tigers win. They're the more talented team. That said, I simply can't pick them to win. My prediction is Arkansas 77, Missouri 65.
