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Let's be up front: We're likely about to hit a little bit of a lull. It's been fast and furious in both sports for the last month or so. There's a piece or two left at some point for both teams out of the transfer portal, but it's not going to be big news almost daily right now. There's not MUCH of an offseason, but if we have a slow time it might be the next couple weeks. But on to what we've got.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING
It appears there are no more outbound transfers for Missouri. So here's the roster as it sits right now:
SENIOR: Tamar Bates, Caleb Grill, Tony Perkins, Jacob Crews, Marques Warrick
JUNIOR: Aidan Shaw, Mark Mitchell
SOPHOMORE: Trent Pierce, Anthony Robinson
FRESHMAN: Marcus Allen, Annor Boateng, TO Barrett, Peyton Marshall, Trent Burns
That's 14 players. I have checked repeatedly and Missouri still plans to add a big man. That means two of the 15 will be on NIL type scholarship deals. Which two we don't know and honestly it really doesn't much matter.
The truth is, the pickings are relatively slim as far as big men go. The biggest name Missouri has been tied to in any way is Kesean Pryor. But there really haven't been any updates on his situation. We'll say again that Missouri has kept things VERY quiet this cycle. We would not be surprised if they've had a big man or two in on a visit (honestly, we'd be surprised if they haven't) but there really haven't been any names or details out there.
There have been some rumors floating around that Jevon Porter to Mizzou isn't completely dead at this point. It seems unlikely because he's already signed with Loyola Marymount, but the truth is, if you want to get out of an NLI it's really not difficult to do at all. From the day he entered the portal, Porter was a virtual lock to Missouri. Like it was a foregone conclusion. He basically ignored contact from most other schools. People in Columbia were saying it was a done deal. We've had people say he wanted to come to Mizzou. And then the situation with Jontay happened and Coban's sentencing happened and it appeared that led to the decision that maybe it was better for Jevon to get out of the spotlight and he ended up at LMU with Lorenzo Romar.
We know what the reaction here is going to be considering the news earlier this week that Jevon was pulled over and ticketed for speeding/suspicion of DWI. We're not trying to turn this whole thread into a moral debate (but we know what will happen anyway). Let's just say that a DWI, while certainly a poor decision, is not something that ought to prevent a kid (or ever really has) from an opportunity to play college sports. This is a 20-year-old and an entire family that's gone through more in the last few weeks that most of us do in years. And, yes, it's been self-inflicted, we know. But consider this a preemptive ask to hold off on the judgment and the anger. We're simply trying to provide the type of information you guys pay for about what's possible.
Our guess is that he'll probably still end up at LMU. If anything were to develop with Missouri it probably would take a while and there's no real rush. We're just putting it out there so that if a few weeks down the road something ends up happening you guys will have had some warning that it's not completely out of the blue. Again, we would not say we expect it, just that it's not impossible.
Operating under the assumption Porter stays with LMU, we're not sure what Mizzou ends up with in terms of a big. Speaking plainly, the odds of a difference-making big man seem fairly low right now, but maybe Dennis Gates has a rabbit to pull out of a hat somewhere.
