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FOOTBALL RECRUITING
The biggest weekend of the year--at least in terms of recruiting--is underway. We ran down everyone expected in town this morning in our official visit preview.
*The festivities got underway last night. A lot of the prospects arrived Thursday night, but the visits don't actually begin until this morning. The exception to that was Lee's Summit North DE Williams Nwaneri. The nation's No. 3 overall prospect began his visit last night. Included in that was a trip to the state capitol with head coach Eli Drinkwitz. We are not sure exactly what the evening in Jeff City was, but it was a one-on-one event. The night was clearly about Mizzou's NIL efforts and how they could help Nwaneri. The Tigers are certainly prepared to make their pitch to Nwaneri this weekend and NIL is a big part of that. Based on what we've been hearing, if it comes down to money, Mizzou and Oklahoma are the most likely landing spots. Not that he won't make some money at Georgia, but the Bulldogs pitch is less NIL centralized than the other two (the truth is, when you're pitching two straight national titles and have recruited better than anybody in the country for at least five years, you don't have to get to the same NIL level that some other schools do). Nwaneri will be in town until Saturday afternoon. He is then scheduled to fly to Atlanta (where he said he has some family activities going on) and will make an unofficial visit to Georgia.
As for where this one stands, it's certainly good to get him on campus. For a minute earlier this week, it appeared this visit was not going to happen and was just going to be canceled for the unofficial to Georgia. The fact that it did happen certainly is a good thing. It will still certainly be a difficult recruitment for Missouri to win, but not impossible. It seems to be coming down to Oklahoma, Georgia and Mizzou based on everything that's out there. Anything other than those three would be a surprise.
*The second major visitor of the weekend is SLUH wide receiver Ryan Wingo. Wingo has visited Michigan, Georgia and Texas this month. Missouri is his final June official. The Tigers are in the mix. Again, NIL is a major factor Missouri is pushing here. The Tigers are going to sell the comparisons to Luther Burden, a St. Louis receiver who stayed home and is doing...quite well for himself. At one point, Wingo was considered a Notre Dame lean. The stiffest competition for Missouri now seems to be Texas and possibly Georgia. Based on what we've heard, we'd say the chances at keeping Wingo are probably a little bit better than those with Nwaneri.
If Missouri can get both of these guys, it's an absolutely huge win for Eli Drinkwitz and could really help restore some momentum, both on the recruiting trail and with the program. Getting either of them would certainly still be pretty good. If you get neither of them, while it's certainly understandable given the competition, it most likely means Mizzou would go 0/10 for the (current) top ten players in the state. It would also mean this recruiting class is very unlikely to include a five-star player. It would lend some oxygen to whatever fire might be under Drinkwitz's seat. We don't expect either decision to stretch into the fall. It seems like summer decisions are possible to likely for both.
*It's an interesting dynamic this weekend. Missouri has at least 14 players on campus (we always tell you guys we do everything we can to dig up the complete visitor list, but always allow for the possibility we're missing somebody). There are four other four stars and clearly a lot of priority targets. But the distinct feeling we're getting is that there's Wingo and Nwaneri in one category and then everyone else. It doesn't mean the rest of the players won't get the red carpet, full official visit experience. But there's a definite line of those two and then the rest.
If the Tigers get Nwaneri and Wingo out of this weekend, it's a gigantic success even if they get nobody else. If they get one of them and supplement it with a handful of other visitors from this weekend, it's very good. If they get neither, but still get a good number of the other dozen players, it can be very good, but the immediate splash will be a little more muted.
A couple of other notes:
- Kenyan Kelly canceled his Kansas official this weekend. The three-star safety was at Missouri earlier this month for an official with the Tigers, however, he's not a take for the Tigers currently. His only other official has been with UTSA. He has a commitment date set for July 2nd.
- Justin Logan was also at Missouri earlier this month. He was scheduled to visit NC State this weekend, but we've been told that trip was canceled. The four-star did stop by South Carolina for an unofficial, however, he doesn't hold an offer from the Gamecocks. Could spell good news for Missouri if Logan is still a take. We'll keep you posted.
- One player who was previously on the visit list but now isn't is offensive lineman Kavion Broussard. A family situation forced Broussard to postpone the trip. It could still happen down the road, but isn't happening this weekend.
- Another previous official visit update as three-star OL Ziron Brown appears to be leaning toward Georgia Tech after his recent visit with the Yellow Jackets. We were told he actually canceled his upcoming official to Stanford before having second thoughts and rescheduling with the Cardinal. So, it appears he'll head out west and then make his college decision afterwards, but we'd be very surprised if Missouri is the pick.
- We were at Mizzou's final individual camp on Thursday. A handful of offers went out and we posted a full notebook this morning. That was the final camp of a busy month of June. The focus was almost entirely on 2025 kids and beyond.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING
- The only real news this week is an upcoming official visit from four-star point guard Bishop Boswell. The Tigers just offered Boswell on Monday and he's starting an official visit Sunday. That certainly indicates a high level of interest. He has already visited Xavier. He has offers from Georgia, Georgetown, Houston, Penn State, Texas A&M and USC.
If the Tigers get Boswell, it would be interesting to see what that means for Antonio Barrett. The Tigers were the first major offer for Barrett and they've been on him a long time. Dennis Gates really doesn't seem to make a major distinction between point guard an off guard. All the guards he brings in are going to be able to do both. So taking Boswell doesn't necessarily mean they're moving on from Barrett. But it's possible. Not sure if there's room for both in this class or not (though last year proved that Gates isn't going to be concerned about numbers until very late in the process; he's going to stack talent and he'll figure it out later).
Boswell will be the seventh official visitor in the 2024 class. Two of them are committed elsewhere with five still available. For a quick refresher, here's the list. We do not know of anyone else who is visiting this weekend, but if we get news of anything, we'll pass it along.
Should be a busy weekend. We'll be trying to get in touch with all of the weekend's visitors start midday on Sunday and will keep you all updated on what goes down.
