After a surprising, disappointing, exciting, and depressing 2017-18 that both began and ended in typical Mizzou fashion, the Tigers begin the offseason with several holes in the roster and one major recruiting target remaining.
Losses from 2017-18:
Michael Porter Jr, SF
Jordan Barnett, SF
Kassius Robertson, SG
Injured Role Players:
Cullen Van Leer
Mitchell Smith
Returning Suicide Vest:
Jordan Geist
Spoiler!
Additions:
Transfer:
He will sit out the entire season, but will have 3 years to play 3 beginning in 2019-2020
Mark Smith (former **** recruit), SG, Illinois
2018 Commitments:
Not a lot to get too excited about at this point. The success or failure of the current recruits in his class will be based upon their development rather than their Day 1 skills.
Torrence Watson, SG, **** St. Louis, MO
Javon Pickett, SG, ***, Wichita, KS
KJ Santos, SF, ***, Tallahassee FL
Xavier Pinson, PG, ***, Chicago, IL
Next year is a rebuilding year. Jontay leaving was a possibility, but not a certainty. That, combined with losing two freshman PGs to transfer and a junior shitbag PG to Cosby means that Mizzou will be bereft of experienced playmakers and ballhandlers anywhere in the backcourt, and no one with the rare ability to create in the half-court like Jontay showed. It's probably a 14 win team next year.
5/30 Edit: Jontay Porter is returning, making this team a fringe NCAA contender.
Just think how nice itd be to have Blake Harris here? He just had to transfer for more playing time, but he was getting more minutes here as a freshmen. I think he could have had a pretty decent impact towards the end of the year with more experience. I think hed be real good this year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
Just think how nice itd be to have Blake Harris here? He just had to transfer for more playing time, but he was getting more minutes here as a freshmen. I think he could have had a pretty decent impact towards the end of the year with more experience. I think hed be real good this year.
Regardless of how good Illinois is or isn't this year, that was an impressive win. Tilmon is really improving, and they have a lot of good young talent. Pickett looked really good, and I couldn't believe how much it looks like Pinson has improved from early November. He looks like a baller. And they're in good hands, Cuonzo is a great coach for that program. Should've hired him years ago. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla:
I wonder if Mizzou Fan still hates Jordan Geist.
Yes. Maybe that'll change if he wins a tournament game for us.
In other news, it looks like the SEC is fairly decent this year with only SC having a losing record. It seems like last year almost every team had a good record going into conference play and it really helped with getting a record number of 8 teams in the big dance. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry:
Gordon from SLU is transferring. Is Zo on him?
I'm not entirely sure I would be.
Look - Gordon went to SLU and got exactly what was promised there. He's getting a lot of run as a true freshmen, the team is playing fairly well...I mean damn, what was he thinking was going to happen?
And he barely made it a semester?
There's a ton of flake potential there, IMO. I get why some of the guards transferred from Mizzou - the two guys who left last year were buried behind Geist and I think they simply didn't expect that. I doubt it was sold to them like that. Marc Smith left because he'd pretty clearly lost his place in the rotation by the end of the year.
But what the hell is Gordon leaving for? He's not losing minutes, the team's not dysfunctional around him. He just...doesn't feel like being there anymore.
That looks like a dude that the Tigers would get, hold a scholarship for a year over, get a semester from him and then he'd just ignore any advice and declare for the draft. But only after he spent that entire transfer window shooting 3 pointers and then going bombs away for his semester here to prove that he's a stretch 5 at the next level.
My first reaction was the same as yours - "Damn Zo - go get this kid..." but as i thought about it more, unless there's a lot to this story that I don't understand, this is just a kid that isn't going to be happy or have the buy in wherever he goes. [Reply]
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
Want no part of Gordon. He pulled a Walter Brady on a teammate.
I hadn't heard that but it's just not terribly surprising.
He's had such a strange background and recruiting process. Kid just gives an outward appearance of being an extreme 'me first' player. Those kinds of guys rub teammates the wrong way and they end up bristling when challenged.
Just a lot of red flags there and I'd be surprised if Cuonzo has any interest in dealing with that shit from a kid that will bolt the moment he gets an advisory board telling him he may sneak into the late 1st and will likely struggle with a team concept while trying to 'earn' that grade.
The juice just doesn't seem worth the squeeze here even though the talent is obvious. [Reply]