FOOTBALL RECRUITING
PREDICTIONS ARE IN:
The nature of The Chamber changed on Thursday afternoon when multiple FutureCast predictions started trending towards Missouri in regards to the four-star talent out of Indianapolis. Carnell was able to visit Missouri right before the coronavirus forced programs into the current recruiting dead period. It appears things are obviously trending in a positive direction for the Tigers, we reached out to a couple of sources and expect Carnell to make an announcement sometime this weekend or early next week
BUSY MONTH AHEAD:
With the NCAA extending the recruiting dead period until July 31st, look for commitments to happen at an even greater pace throughout the rest of May and into June and July. There is already set to be a lot of movement with Missouri's 2021 class in the month of June with the following targets setting commitment dates:
Isaiah Coe, DT, Iowa Western - Committing on June 5th, seems like a toss-up right now
Raheim Sanders, RB, Rockledge (Fla.) - Committing on June 8th, looking like it will be Arkansas.
Shemar Pearl, DE, Garden City (Ks.) - Committing on June 18th, candidates are Missouri, Texas Tech, and South Carolina
Tyler Hibbler, S, Trinity Catholic (Mo.) - Committing on June 23rd, momentum appears to be in Missouri's favor.
NEWS AND NOTES
- Blessed Trinity (Ga.) safety Jackson Hamilton included Missouri among his Top 8 on Wednesday. The Tigers join Louisville, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Kentucky, Illinois, Boston College, and Vanderbilt. Hamilton's older brother, Elijah, is a redshirt senior at Vanderbilt so they could play a factor along with the hometown team Georgia Tech. Florida State and Kentucky are recent offers as well.
- J Michael Sturdivant now has a new Top 4 and has eliminated Missouri from contention with LSU, Cal, Oklahoma, and UCLA now being his top suitors. While the Tigers main wide receiver targets remain East St. Louis products Keontez Lewis and Dominic Lovett, the staff could possibly take a third wide receiver if it's the right one. Now, it looks like Southhaven (Miss.) product Isaiah Brevard might be the new "right one" candidate.
- OL target Bryson Estes released his Top 5 earlier this week that included Missouri along with Florida State, Arizona State, Nebraska, and Penn State. While Missouri and Florida State seem to be the main competition for the three-star prospect, it appears Arizona State is making a significant push as well according to his recent article with Chad Simmons.
- Westover (Ga.) cornerback Cameron Bergeron is another secondary prospect that Missouri is keeping close tabs on. He picked up an offer from the Tigers back on April 5th and has been communicating with both Charlie Harbison and David Gibbs on the staff. The three-star prospect told us that Duke, West Virginia, and Pitt are the other schools he hears from a lot.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Mizzou hasn't yet offered, but we spoke to him in a story this morning for an update on his recruitment
Graham has blown up since Mizzou offered a couple of weeks ago. Michigan State is the latest program to offer. Georgia and Auburn jumped in this week too. He currently lists 15 offers.
We talked to one of Landers' coaches this week as the player is not currently doing interviews. Like Graham, he is seeing his recruiting expand right now. Kansas State offered this week. He is up to a half dozen offers.
These two illustrate the difficulty for Cuonzo Martin and his staff right now. This will be taken by some as an excuse, but it's not an excuse. It's just the reality of the situation. Mizzou hasn't won a tournament game in a decade. It's only played in one since 2013 and two since the Norfolk State loss. There was a time when you brought up Mizzou basketball when the first thought for most people was "one of the best programs in the country that hasn't made a Final Four." Now, the first thought in relation to the postseason is probably Norfolk State and the second is "Other than those few months when we thought Michael Porter was going to play for them we haven't really even thought about them for years."
The truth is, unless there are natural ties either through previous relationships, Missouri isn't really in a position to get the top shelf guys right now. A few years ago Kim Anderson drew a ton of heat from the fans for basically saying (we're paraphrasing here, these aren't the exact words he used) "You have to know who you can get in recruiting. You don't need to waste a bunch of time on guys you aren't getting. We're going to spend our time on the guys we have a good shot with." People got mad at that at the time. Mostly they got mad because Kim lost a whole lot of games and any time he talked people got mad. But what he said was true. There's no reason to invest a ton of time in guys you're not getting. And if schools like North Carolina and Kentucky and Duke start offering a kid, for the most part, Missouri isn't getting that kid at this point in time. So what they have to do is find guys who they think are really good players, but who don't have that level of attention.
That's what Martin's staff has been doing this spring. But what you see happening is that Missouri offers a kid who doesn't have many offers at the time, fans say "Why are we offering that guy?" and then three weeks later the same kid has 20 offers.
The truth is, Missouri can't sell winning and success right now. It can't sell a rabid fanbase that fills up the arena. It can't really sell tradition because the vast majority of the tradition happened before these kids were born. So what it has to do is what Gary Pinkel did in football. It has to find guys that other programs are missing on and it has to be right. You're not beating out North Carolina and Kentucky, but you need to beat out Auburn and Xavier and Kansas State and teams like that. And then those players have to perform, which will allow you in a few years to maybe get some of the kids that have those high profile national offers. Not all of them by any means but some of them. Pinkel didn't succeed because he was an elite recruiter. He succeeded because he had realistic goals of who he could recruit. He got some elite guys that were regional and had ties to the program and he supplemented it with guys who weren't viewed as elite recruits but became elite players. That's what Martin has to do. You have to walk before you can run. Mizzou basketball has spent the better part of a decade barely even crawling. If he can get some of the players like the ones listed here and turn them into a decent team then he can put himself in position to raise the recruiting profile in a couple of years. It's probably not what any of you want to hear, but it's absolutely reality.
*Couple of other notes posted on the board on new offer Cesare Edwards and interest in point guard Stevie Mitchell
PREDICTIONS ARE IN:
The nature of The Chamber changed on Thursday afternoon when multiple FutureCast predictions started trending towards Missouri in regards to the four-star talent out of Indianapolis. Carnell was able to visit Missouri right before the coronavirus forced programs into the current recruiting dead period. It appears things are obviously trending in a positive direction for the Tigers, we reached out to a couple of sources and expect Carnell to make an announcement sometime this weekend or early next week
BUSY MONTH AHEAD:
With the NCAA extending the recruiting dead period until July 31st, look for commitments to happen at an even greater pace throughout the rest of May and into June and July. There is already set to be a lot of movement with Missouri's 2021 class in the month of June with the following targets setting commitment dates:
Isaiah Coe, DT, Iowa Western - Committing on June 5th, seems like a toss-up right now
Raheim Sanders, RB, Rockledge (Fla.) - Committing on June 8th, looking like it will be Arkansas.
Shemar Pearl, DE, Garden City (Ks.) - Committing on June 18th, candidates are Missouri, Texas Tech, and South Carolina
Tyler Hibbler, S, Trinity Catholic (Mo.) - Committing on June 23rd, momentum appears to be in Missouri's favor.
NEWS AND NOTES
- Blessed Trinity (Ga.) safety Jackson Hamilton included Missouri among his Top 8 on Wednesday. The Tigers join Louisville, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Kentucky, Illinois, Boston College, and Vanderbilt. Hamilton's older brother, Elijah, is a redshirt senior at Vanderbilt so they could play a factor along with the hometown team Georgia Tech. Florida State and Kentucky are recent offers as well.
- J Michael Sturdivant now has a new Top 4 and has eliminated Missouri from contention with LSU, Cal, Oklahoma, and UCLA now being his top suitors. While the Tigers main wide receiver targets remain East St. Louis products Keontez Lewis and Dominic Lovett, the staff could possibly take a third wide receiver if it's the right one. Now, it looks like Southhaven (Miss.) product Isaiah Brevard might be the new "right one" candidate.
- OL target Bryson Estes released his Top 5 earlier this week that included Missouri along with Florida State, Arizona State, Nebraska, and Penn State. While Missouri and Florida State seem to be the main competition for the three-star prospect, it appears Arizona State is making a significant push as well according to his recent article with Chad Simmons.
- Westover (Ga.) cornerback Cameron Bergeron is another secondary prospect that Missouri is keeping close tabs on. He picked up an offer from the Tigers back on April 5th and has been communicating with both Charlie Harbison and David Gibbs on the staff. The three-star prospect told us that Duke, West Virginia, and Pitt are the other schools he hears from a lot.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Mizzou hasn't yet offered, but we spoke to him in a story this morning for an update on his recruitment
Graham has blown up since Mizzou offered a couple of weeks ago. Michigan State is the latest program to offer. Georgia and Auburn jumped in this week too. He currently lists 15 offers.
We talked to one of Landers' coaches this week as the player is not currently doing interviews. Like Graham, he is seeing his recruiting expand right now. Kansas State offered this week. He is up to a half dozen offers.
These two illustrate the difficulty for Cuonzo Martin and his staff right now. This will be taken by some as an excuse, but it's not an excuse. It's just the reality of the situation. Mizzou hasn't won a tournament game in a decade. It's only played in one since 2013 and two since the Norfolk State loss. There was a time when you brought up Mizzou basketball when the first thought for most people was "one of the best programs in the country that hasn't made a Final Four." Now, the first thought in relation to the postseason is probably Norfolk State and the second is "Other than those few months when we thought Michael Porter was going to play for them we haven't really even thought about them for years."
The truth is, unless there are natural ties either through previous relationships, Missouri isn't really in a position to get the top shelf guys right now. A few years ago Kim Anderson drew a ton of heat from the fans for basically saying (we're paraphrasing here, these aren't the exact words he used) "You have to know who you can get in recruiting. You don't need to waste a bunch of time on guys you aren't getting. We're going to spend our time on the guys we have a good shot with." People got mad at that at the time. Mostly they got mad because Kim lost a whole lot of games and any time he talked people got mad. But what he said was true. There's no reason to invest a ton of time in guys you're not getting. And if schools like North Carolina and Kentucky and Duke start offering a kid, for the most part, Missouri isn't getting that kid at this point in time. So what they have to do is find guys who they think are really good players, but who don't have that level of attention.
That's what Martin's staff has been doing this spring. But what you see happening is that Missouri offers a kid who doesn't have many offers at the time, fans say "Why are we offering that guy?" and then three weeks later the same kid has 20 offers.
The truth is, Missouri can't sell winning and success right now. It can't sell a rabid fanbase that fills up the arena. It can't really sell tradition because the vast majority of the tradition happened before these kids were born. So what it has to do is what Gary Pinkel did in football. It has to find guys that other programs are missing on and it has to be right. You're not beating out North Carolina and Kentucky, but you need to beat out Auburn and Xavier and Kansas State and teams like that. And then those players have to perform, which will allow you in a few years to maybe get some of the kids that have those high profile national offers. Not all of them by any means but some of them. Pinkel didn't succeed because he was an elite recruiter. He succeeded because he had realistic goals of who he could recruit. He got some elite guys that were regional and had ties to the program and he supplemented it with guys who weren't viewed as elite recruits but became elite players. That's what Martin has to do. You have to walk before you can run. Mizzou basketball has spent the better part of a decade barely even crawling. If he can get some of the players like the ones listed here and turn them into a decent team then he can put himself in position to raise the recruiting profile in a couple of years. It's probably not what any of you want to hear, but it's absolutely reality.
*Couple of other notes posted on the board on new offer Cesare Edwards and interest in point guard Stevie Mitchell
Last edited by a moderator:
