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FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Since the last time we gathered here, Missouri has added three football commitments. We're not going to recap all that here because we assume you've been paying attention. Missouri's class now ranks 11th in the country.
Sean Williams ran down what's left this morning. There is no real timetable on Iose Epenesa making a decision. It's probably before the football season starts, but not set in stone. We don't feel Missouri is likely for him. After the official visits we heard that Utah and Miami probably made the most progress. Iowa is still considered a major threat and probably the leader. This just looks like the Tigers are going to finish out of the money barring a surprise.
The chances appear to be a bit better with Andrew Babalola. Stanford got all the early buzz, but nothing's happened. Michigan had a lot of chatter coming out of the visit to Ann Arbor, but nothing's happened. Oklahoma felt very confident after the Norman trip, but nothing's happened. Nobody is saying Missouri is the favorite. We aren't even saying that. But from what we're hearing, Missouri is being discounted a bit more than it should here. With four major contenders and basically no word from Babalola himself, it would be a little reckless to term anyone as a leader or assign percentages to anything. What we can say is that Mizzou sources feel better about this one than the Tigers are being given credit for nationally. Again, we're not saying Missouri is in the lead or predicting that he ends up in Columbia. We just think there's a better chance of it than most people have indicated. We've heard a decision from Bablola could come as soon as next week.
So Mizzou will likely be at 17 or 18 commitments when it opens fall camp. That means you're looking probably between 2 and 5 more spots in terms of high school players. The targets, as Sean wrote this morning, will likely become more clear during the course of the football season. You're looking at players Missouri has offered but didn't bring in on summer officials, any potential late bloomers that pop up during their senior seasons and you always have to have a couple spots for players that might decommit or situations where a coach gets fired.
Long story short, the summer boom appears to be over. Now it's about filling in the last couple of pieces of the puzzle over the next five months before the transfer portal opens in December.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING
We haven't had a lot of news here lately because there hasn't been a lot of news. Missouri is likely looking at a three man class in 2025. As always, that could vary by one in either direction, but the baseline expectation is three. The Tigers already have a commitment from point guard Aaron Rowe. They also recently got an official visit from Nicholas Randall. Other top tier targets Mizzou would like to get to campus before the signing period opens in November are Jasper Johnson, Davion Hannah and Jalen Haralson. In an ideal world, Mizzou's 2025 class probably is some combination from the pool of those five players.
The Tigers' staff is on the road right now. The Tigers have coaches at the Elite 32 in Atlanta right now. They will make their way beginning today to Peach Jam in Augusta, SC, which is the Nike championship for the summer. The event runs from July 13-21, but the coaches are only allowed to be there on the weekends. They'll watch for a couple days, come home Monday through Friday and then be back for next weekend. The trouble with that is if your targets are playing on teams that don't make the championship rounds, they might not be playing by the time you get back next weekend. But everyone is in the same situation and no one has ever said the recruiting calendar makes sense. Here's a list of players we know Mizzou is interested in that will be in action at Peach Jam:
2025
Jasper Johnson - Team Thad
Nicholas Randall - Brad Beal Elite
Jalen Haralson - Indy Heat
Davion Hannah - Team Herro (if you're including him)
2026
JJ Andrews - BBE 16U
Sheek Pearson - BBE 16U
Tristan Reed - MOKAN 16U
2027
Jaylan Mitchell- BBE 16U
Scottie Adkinson - BBE 15U
A source recently told us that Adkinson is looking to set up a visit to Columbia in early August.
A handful of new offers have also gone out in the last few days:
Josiah Parker (this is a Rob Summers target. His older brother played for Summers. If we're guessing, he's probably more of a backup plan at this point as Mizzou is his first major conference offer).
Kameron Mercer (don't think we're about to start breaking down 2028 recruitments)
CJ Ingram (we'll do our best to learn more soon)
Visits can pick back up in hoops in August. We'd imagine the Tigers will have some players on campus then and plenty more for home football games (particularly SEC games against Vandy and Auburn before the early signing period). We'll keep you updated on what happens.
That's where we're at right now. This week really marks the transition from recruiting dominating the news for the last few months to football season. SEC Media Days begin on Monday in Dallas. We'll be there for Mizzou's appearance on Tuesday. From Sunday until whenever the season ends, you'll see at least one football story every day, often more. We'll still be keeping tabs on recruiting obviously, but the pace of the last few weeks is not going to keep up as far as the news goes.
