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BASKETBALL RECRUITING
We'll start off with a quick hoops note. Mizzou had a 2025 official visitor on campus this week in Nicholas Randall. The Tigers have been on the Vashon forward for quite some time. We're told from both sides the visit went well (they almost never don't go well). We're scheduled to talk to Randall this afternoon to get more on him.
Being honest, Randall's an interesting case. He's a good player, a strong regional recruit. He's not a national type guy. Does Missouri try to lock him down early or with only a couple spots left do they continue to look around and chase some big fish before going all in on Randall? We don't know the answer to that question. We do know there will be some people saying "How in the world are you turning down a top 60 player from right in your own backyard?" The thing is, everything you knew about recruiting has changed. Especially in basketball. You're talking about, in most years, two or three kids out of high school. The portal is the way college basketball teams are mostly being built now. You can take a high school kid who's going to take a year or two to really contribute (and that's the case for most of them outside about the top 15-20) or you can go get a kid who's already done it on the college level. Most coaches are going the latter route (and Dennis Gates has gone the latter route).
Point being, if Missouri goes hard on Randall, it has a very good shot. But we're not sure at this point just where that recruitment stands. It's going to be interesting to see what the Tigers' approach is, not just with Randall, but with all the non-elite high school kids going forward.
FOOTBALL RECRUITING
We started a dead period on Monday. The visits are all over, now we enter the big time commitment phase. Last year, Mizzou got seven commitments in 12 days. There are ten players who could potentially make their decisions in the next ten days or so. We're just going to run them down.
Corey Simms -- We'll start you off with likely bad news because you can only get happier from here. In the last 24 hours, we've started to hear a pretty strong USC push with Simms. Last weekend we talked to people close to USC and Penn State and neither one felt very confident. Whether that was a misread on the situation or something changed we aren't sure. But as of this morning, most of our information leads us to believe Simms will choose USC on Sunday afternoon. We do not believe the coaching staffs have been informed. Simms has gone pretty quiet and there may not be anybody who actually knows his decision. He may not have actually made the decision. There are 55 hours to go and things can change in that time period. If we had to guess today, we'd pick USC.
Charles Bass -- He's announcing on Monday between Mizzou, K-State, Arkansas and Illinois. We'd be stunned if he doesn't pick Missouri.
Donovan Olugbode -- This one's impossible to read. Mizzou, Florida, USC and Washington are in the mix. Adam Gorney wrote a story yesterday predicting the Huskies would land him. Florida picked up a four-star receiver in Joshua Moore yesterday (which doesn't mean they couldn't get another one). There's belief Olugbode will announce a decision next week, but he hasn't yet dropped a specific date.
Jayvan Boggs -- A decision comes July 4 between Mizzou and UCF. We haven't wavered here. We're not telling you it's a lock, but the fact he canceled every visit other than Mizzou matters. We'd predict this one for Mizzou.
Keiton Jones -- He's visited Arkansas, Mizzou and Kansas State. He hasn't done any interviews we've seen or announced a decision. Putting pieces together, we'd give Mizzou a slight edge over K-State with Arkansas likely third. It makes sense for an announcement in the next week or two, but again, Jones hasn't put out a date.
Iose Epenesa -- This is one whose decision could actually take longer. It's possible he pulls the trigger in the coming days, but his family has been through this process and none of the schools on his list are likely to drop him if he's not ready. Either way, our thinking on this has been consistent. We think if he goes anywhere other than Iowa, it's Mizzou. But we're not sure he can be pulled from the family tradition at Iowa.
Lamont Rogers -- This is probably the most interesting one on the list. Missouri has been considered among the leaders, if not THE leader, for quite some time. People I've talked to at Texas don't think he'll be a Longhorn. A&M is a possible threat here. The biggest threat may be Oklahoma. People who follow the Sooners are very confident after his visit, which was his last. Our opinion--and it's nothing more than an opinion--is that Missouri has been in this so long that will win out in the end. We aren't making a prediction, but if you forced us to today, we'd pick Mizzou. The level of confidence wouldn't be incredibly high though just because there's a lot that's not known.
Michael Fasusi -- He may take longer. Whenever he eventually does decide, we expect it to be between Texas and Texas A&M. We continue to list him in this group because he visited last month and hasn't decided, but barring a complete change, Missouri isn't getting him.
Andrew Babalola -- Missouri's got a better shot here than it does with Fasusi. But it's still probably a bit of a long shot. Again, Oklahoma people seem very confident (sense a trend here?). There was a lot of Stanford buzz early, but nothing has come of it yet. Michigan is a player. Missouri's in the mix, but we just don't see this one going their way. Pulling this one out of the hat would be gigantic though.
Chase Loftin -- Like Olugbode, we just can't make a call here. He's playing it very close to the vest. Nobody knows. He told us earlier this week he'd like to make a decision this week, but we haven't seen a decision. Going into the process, the belief was that Missouri and A&M were probably the stiffest competition. Florida State appeared to make an impression on his visit. With Nebraska, it depends who you talk to. Some seem to feel pretty confident, but we were told he actually had some other things to do on the weekend of his official to Nebraska and wasn't on campus for the entire weekend. Now, he's a local kid, so that's not necessarily a huge deal, but it would kind of support what we were told early which was that the Huskers probably weren't the biggest threat here. A&M already has two tight ends in its class. They'd still take Loftin, but that's a logjam of guys at one position. In the end, none of these choices will shock us, but we might have Mizzou and Florida State as just slightly more likely than the other two.
So the overall status is that we're confident Missouri gets at least three of the guys on this list (Bass, Boggs, Jones), pretty skeptical on three (Simms, Babalola, Fasusi) and up in the air on four (Loftin, Olugbode, Rogers, Epenesa). Whether this is a decent run, a really good run or a great run comes down to those last four (and whether they can pull a last minute surprise with Simms or Fasusi).
Stay tuned. Gonna be a busy ten days or so.
