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JUNIOR DAY ON SATURDAY
Mizzou had planned to have a Junior Day for some of the bigger names in the area in January. That got snowed out. They're trying again on Saturday. The weather isn't great again, but the staff is hopeful most of the invites can make it to Columbia to see a spring practice and spend the day in Columbia. Here is a list of players we anticipate being in attendance (as always, there could be more, this is just what we're expecting):
Logan Reichert
Miles Mcvay
Paris Patterson
JT Smith
Brandon Henderson
Amir Herring
Josh Manning
Jeremiah McLellan
Brett Norfleet (We are told Missouri feels good that Norfleet is solid)
Adepoju Adebawore
Jahkai Lang
Edric Hill
Leontre Bradford
Allen Middleton
We don't have any of these guys on imminent commit watch or anything, but who knows? We'll follow up with as many of them as possible next week.
OTHER RECRUITING NOTES
Obviously, a big visit weekend lies ahead for Missouri on Saturday. But, Missouri had some notable targets and prospects on campus last weekend and throughout the week as well - here are some notes on each below:
- Mizzou commit Jahkai Lang was the headliner in town last weekend. The three-star prospect told us he really enjoyed his return trip to Columbia and specifically spending time with defensive line coach Kevin Peoples, whom he was really impressed with observing him in practice and during film sessions. Lang said he's specifically recruiting Cayden Green and Jeremiyah Love to join him in the 2023 class. Oregon is a school to perhaps keep an eye on, as Lang said he could possibly make a trip up to Eugene for their spring game.
- One of Missouri's newest quarterback targets, Brock Glenn, was also on campus this past weekend. The three-star prospect from Memphis noted that he was impressed with QB coach Bush Hamden during their spring practice and film session. He also noted he really likes Missouri's offensive system and there is now a lot of interest in the Tigers moving forward. Florida State, Mississippi State, and Oklahoma State are the next three schools that will receive visits from the rising signal-caller.
- We caught up with Reeds Springs (Mo.) TE/DE Caden Wiest earlier this week. He's an in-state prospect that Missouri's staff is keeping an eye on and will continue to evaluate throughout the spring and summer. Wiest currently has offers from Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Illinois State, and Missouri State so far. Colorado and Minnesota are also expressing interest. Missouri is currently recruiting him as an athlete while Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan like him at tight end. Missouri State and Illinois State like him at defensive end.
- Last weekend, Missouri extended an offer to Bellevue (Neb.) West 2024 quarterback Daniel Kaelin while he was on campus. It was Kaelin's second trip to Missouri after previously visiting for the Tennessee game last season. While currently living in Nebraska, Kaelin is originally from Springfield, Missouri - so, he has ties to the state and likes the Tigers coaching staff and thinks he's a great fit in Mizzou's offensive system.
- Speaking of Cayden Green, he's returning to Michigan for a second visit this weekend. He told our Michigan site earlier this week that the Wolverines and Oklahoma are guaranteed to get official visits from him starting this spring with Miami, Missouri, Baylor, and Oregon also in the running to get officials.
- Newly offered, four-star wide receiver Joshua Manning is also expected at Missouri this weekend. Interesting note on him is his cousin, Taj Manning, signed with K-State to play basketball and the Wildcats are making a big push currently. The Lee's Summit product was in Manhattan this past week for K-State's first spring practice. Manning has also already checked out Iowa this month and is planning to visit Iowa State and Nebraska as well.
- Pete Thamel raised eyebrows among Missouri fans earlier this week when he tweeted that Georgia transfer JT Daniels was on a visit to Oregon State, but also considering Missouri and West Virginia. We had posted earlier in the process that Missouri had visited with Daniels, but he would take his time and we believed the interest on his end to be middling at that time. That may have changed a little bit. We understand that Daniels and the staff have continued to communicate. However, he doesn't have a visit set. We were told a few weeks ago by a Georgia source that the belief was Daniels would like to spend his last year outside of the SEC. That would obviously hurt Missouri's chances. At this point, we'd put Daniels in the "possible, but not all that likely" category. More likely to us is that there are going to be more quarterbacks to hit the portal after spring football decides some battles at the position across the country. There will be guys Mizzou is likely to get involved with during that wave. Our understanding is that the staff isn't in desperation mode just trying to add anyone it can. If it goes into the season with the quarterbacks it currently has, it's not internally viewed as a failure or a major problem. But they'll continue to look for one-year quarterbacks they believe to be upgrades.
THE BASKETBALL COACHING SITUATION
Everything we've heard in the last 24 hours leads us to believe it's not going to be a long wait to find out what's going to happen with Cuonzo Martin. Desiree Reed-Francois told Dave Matter yesterday that she would meet with Cuonzo Martin in "the next couple of days." We can tell you the team stayed in Tampa last night, largely due to weather in mid-Missouri. We would expect them to fly home today, but don't know that for sure. A post-season meeting and evaluation could happen as early as this afternoon.
The fact that Reed-Francois again declined an opportunity to tell a reporter that Martin was coming back next season is at least intriguing and at most telling. The main thing in our minds the last few days has been this: There's no way the SEC Tournament was going to change the decision. So you had to have a pretty good idea what the decision was going in. If that decision was that he's staying, why wouldn't someone have said it by now? There are two potential reasons:
1) Missouri is still trying to make the money work. We don't really believe that to be true, but it's certainly possible.
2) Missouri has been back channeling candidates and the decision is dependent on that interest. In other words, you put some feelers out. If you get back information that you like, you make the move. If you get indications your top few guys wouldn't really want the job, you keep Martin and see what happens.
We're not in the prediction business here. But whichever way it goes, we don't expect to be in limbo past Monday or Tuesday. It very well could happen (either by an announcement or by a story getting out before an announcement either way) before then.
We're certainly working all angles available to us and will stay on top of this story until there is resolution.
