****Official 2018-19 Missouri Tigers Basketball Thread****
 

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

Returning Starters:
Jontay Porter, SF/PF
Kevin Puryear, PF
Jeremiah Tilmon, F/C

Returning Role Player:
Reed Nikko

Injured Role Players:
Cullen Van Leer
Mitchell Smith

Returning Suicide Vest:
Jordan Geist

Jontay isn’t gone, yet.

In

Lol at Jordan Geist’s category.

I’d be surprised if Jontay isn’t back.

Go Tiggers go...

I don't think he's a first rounder this year and if he is im sure he's a late first rounder. I think if he were to return he could become a mid first rounder. He needs at least one more year of school.

It all depends on what his brothers agent hears from the NBA, with the slotting for rookies he'd have to decide if he's willing to give up a year of earning potential for the extra 200k per year.

I think they’re going to get Ramey and a grad transfer combo guard who can help with PG duties. Giest will play, but hopefully in more of a complementary ball handler role.

Pinson is similar to Blake Harris in terms of athletic ability and potential. He’s a freak with good quickness who can be a lockdown defender. Think he’ll be a solid contributor off the bench even as a freshman.

Tillmon is working on midrange and 3 point shots and, evidently, doing well.

He should work on holding onto the ball tighter in traffic, while he's at it.

How about not fouling too.

Anyone heard anything more about Ramey? I've read that Louisville has entered the picture again. Also, it looks like potential options for grad transfers are dwindling, so we're putting a lot of eggs in the basket with Ramey. When would he be expected to sign?

I don’t think anyone knows what is going on there.

He had a trip to Louisville set up for this weekend but had to cancel.

Sounds like Mizzou has missed out on most of the grad transfer options at this point.

So I guess the plan is now Ramey or bust?

More and more hype about Jontay being a mid 1st. Maybe he won’t be back.

I don’t think there’s a “maybe” about it.

He gone.

I must have been completely out of touch. I didn’t think he was that high on NBA radar yet.

He wouldn't make it past the Warriors pick.

Not getting a Ramey to Mizzou vibe.

They got Dru Smith, the Evansville transfer, today. He’ll have two years left after sitting out.

It’s a really nice get for 2019+ (he’s a really good shooter and lead guard), but I don’t think they use that scholarship on him if they’re getting Ramey.

In that scenario, the PG situation will be Geist/Pinson. Could still be an improvement from this year at the pure PG spot, but Robertson’s contribution as a combo guard will be missed.

Yeah,Smith means no Ramey, IMO. Two guards sitting is going to be tough.

Smith is a great get

He's deciding today, correct?

Maybe some day we'll be able to pull recruits from our own state.

Martin is changing the narrative there. Ramey had long relationships with Pitino and Shaka before Martin was ever hired at Mizzou.

Mizzou is in great shape with local targets for 2019 and beyond.

Anyone seeing anything about Jontay coming back? I just read an article saying there were whispers that he was leaning towards coming back to have another season to develop and enter a weaker 2019 draft. I certainly won't get my hopes up, but him coming back would certainly change the narrative for the upcoming season.

I'm hoping for that. But not holding my breath.

If he's a first rounder, I really don't see why he'd do it. He gets a guaranteed contract and it's a year closer to his second contract, which is where he can make real money. Even if he came back and was a top five pick, he's still not going to increase his lifetime earnings unless he thinks it gives him a better shot at a second contract.

Well I saw a tweet saying Porter has cancelled a visit with a team and is planning on returning. Let's hope that's true!

If we are able to keep Jontay for next year it's basically like getting a surprise top 10 recruit. He's gonna be damn good next year.

If you are talking about Michael Porter, he signed with an agent. He can't come back.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colle...5206946ce.html

^ obviously he is talking about Jontay

Yeah, realized after I posted that I didn't specify which Porter, but I think it's pretty clear which one I was talking about.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/X5OPQ7zEyA">pic.twitter.com/X5OPQ7zEyA</a></p>&mdash; Mizzou Basketball (@MizzouHoops) <a href="https://twitter.com/MizzouHoops/status/1001899283950522369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
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He's back.

Well that raises the ceiling of next year's team from about 14 to 22 wins, IMO.

We're still lacking at PG and with proven scoring options, but our front court should be a strength. I think 20 wins and a return to the NCAA tournament are reasonable expectations. Let's just hope we don't have any more knuckleheads transferring right before the season, or any more of players letting down their teammates by driving drunk right before the tournament.

That's great. I hope he improves his NBA appeal as a reward for this.

That's good. Good for Mizzou, good for the kid. Win Win.

Good call, Pitt!

Don’t forget consistently harassing and assaulting women...

Big return for Mizzou. Hope they find a way to get Jordan Lathon - 6-4 combo guard - on board. That would give them enough depth at the G position to really take advantage of the great interior combo.

Not sure they’re even recruiting him, which I don’t get.

This is interesting:

Braun a late addition for Mizzou

I'm shocked about Porter - but I think it's the right move - he needs to develop more - I'm shocked due to his vulnerability to injury. I'd go get that money while I can.

I wasn't aware he had a vulnerability to injury. Are you thinking of the other Porter?

Oh yes, I am actually. I just spoke to dad - I was thinking he meant Michael - Okay it all makes sense now. I hadn't researched it yet. My error.

Any chance of freeing up Vanleer's scholarship, or are we stuck with that mess?

Hoping for a "medical retirement" situation.

-Tell him we accidentally messed up knee surgery
-Accidentally amputate from knee down
-Profit

Another positive of hopefully not having a down year is the ****ing SEC likely won't exclude us from the SEC/Big 12 challenge again.

Sandbothe is an underrated Tiger.

He played when I was in school. Loved him.

One of the first Tigers I can remember. Was my dad’s favorite on those teams.

Cullen VanLeer has medically retired and freed up a scholarship.

Also, McKinney and Liddell both visited over the weekend. McKinney cancelled his visit to Kansas State to visit Mizzou with Liddell, and there is hope he could commit soon. We need the help with Liddell, because Ohio State is rumored to be the favorite.

I was pretty excited when I first heard the news until I remembered that CVL is a senior and was almost certainly not going to play this season anyway. He was set to graduate so it's extremely unlikely Mizzou would've sought to medically redshirt him (and as a graduate, I don't think he had any basis to compel them to).

So since they really can't use the scholarship for this season anyway other than some kind of strange transfer case popping up that may be eligible in the spring and it was going to free up next season anyway, there's no real gain.

As for recruiting - Cuonzo's coming up a bit short this cycle. If he gets McKinney and Liddell that's a nice foundation but those appear to be the only 2 players the Tigers are even presently in on. I'm sure there's someone under the radar but it's unlikely to be a major piece.

Losing on Watts as abruptly as we did and then Tray Jackson (who seemed like a done deal) took a lot of momentum from this class and if he doesn't get McKinney and Liddell inked, the class will fall to shit in a hurry.

True. I'm confident we'll get McKinney, but if we don't also get Liddell we will likely end up with an extremely disappointing class. I hope that isn't the case, because we should expect more from Cuonzo Martin as a recruiter.

Mario McKinney is announcing on Monday at 5PM. Liddell cut his final 3 to Missouri, OSU, and Illinois with his last official visit coming this weekend at Illinois.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Four-star combo guard Mario McKinney picks <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mizzou?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mizzou</a> over Kansas State, Auburn, Iowa State and others. Full story from <a href="https://twitter.com/ByKeeganPope?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ByKeeganPope</a>: <a href="https://t.co/PyBTP6XF2E">https://t.co/PyBTP6XF2E</a></p>&mdash; Power Mizzou (@PowerMizzoucom) <a href="https://twitter.com/PowerMizzoucom/status/1044369200427544576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Way to go Cuonzo!

Martin has an in-home visit with Liddell left. Still like Mizzou’s chances there.

McKinney is an intriguing prospect. How the jumper develops will determine how good he becomes, but he’s a premium athlete who can get to the rim. Athletic, quick lefties are a tough matchup. He also should be a standout defender.

Commitments this early worry me


Because Mizzou


But in all seriousness this bolds very well for us to land Liddell. Next year will probably be a down year unless someone really steps up, I'm looking at you Mr. Tilmon, but damn do the years after that look good, especially if we land Liddell. I wasnt happy with Martin, but I think he is really going to turn us around and could be Mizzou basketball's best head coach.

I don't see why it has to be considered a down year with the transfers coming in.

Mainly because we really don't have a PG worth a shit. All teams have to do is press us and we crumble.

Dry Smith and Mark Smith - the transfers - are both quality ball handlers. Dru is a true PG and Mark is a big combo guard. They’ll help a ton.

This year’s squad still will have to rely on Geist more than you’d like, but there are more ballhandlers around him and Xavier Pinson is a quick twitch athlete and tough Chicago kid. I think Pinson will be solid against pressure.

Pinson is my sleeper. I think CM is going to love the kid and he'll force his way into that rotation.

As for McKinney - I'll say that his commitment means less than not getting it would have. If they don't get that done, this class is a pending disaster. By getting it done, they have a chance for the class to remain fairly average.

They still really need lidell. I wish I knew anything at all about Chris Guess but I feel like he's probably just a rotational player when all is said and done. Doesn't seem big enough to be a premium option in the front court or skilled enough to be a wing. I'm guessing they'll try to coach him into that roll and hope they can get his game up enough to play as a stretch 3 but I just don't see the ball skills or shooting ability to really excel in that roll. He's not gonna become Jordan Barnett out there.

Because the transfers can't play.

Santos can, maybe one other fairly average one, but the key transfers (the Smiths) still aren't eligible, IIRC.

As Duncan mentioned, that changes with the two transfer guards. Pinson will also be a sophomore and hopefully will have shown improvement and growth in the weight room as a freshman. McKinney will get minutes as a freshman. We won't be the top team in the SEC, butit certainly shouldn't be a down year. This year was supposed to be the down year before Porter came back.

I see.

I believe he is referring to 'next year' as the upcoming season.

In either event, I agree that the '19-'20 season should be a nice year even after Jontay leaves presuming that we get Liddell and we get plenty of growth from Pinson and Watson. Watson's development will be huge. If he tracks the way Mark Smith did at Illinois, we could be in some trouble...

Look at the post I quoted. He said next year will be a down year. Next year the transfers will be able to play.

Yep my bad. By next year I mean this year. Next year I think they will be good.

Okay, my bad. I guess this year will be somewhat of a down year due to the lack of PG options, but I think we'll still be competitive with Porter coming back and with hopefully an improved Tillmon. I guess we'll see!

Liddell is going to Ohio State....

And you know that how?

Re: Liddell Current predictions are leaning to Ohio State. Martin will make another in-home visit before he decides.

Liddell is hard to read because he’s a soft-spoken, humble kid who has a hard time saying no to people. I won’t count Martin out until he actually is out.

Re: the upcoming season, I expect Watson and Santos to be upgrades as ball handlers from Barnett. Both are better off the bounce than Barnett, which should help with pressure. They just have more bodies and more quick twitch and size to throw at it.

Re: Guess, I see an athletic swingman who may be insane from what I hear, but he did put up big scoring numbers in the toughest league in Ohio. Don’t know if he contributes this year, but I get why Martin was interested.

Pretty much most of the info available has him headed to them. One parent wants Mizzou one OSU. In the end I don't think that Martin is going to have the sway to get this done.

Huge commitment from another McKinney last night! Just add Liddel and Cuonzo is building something nice in CoMo

Still not enough to definitively say he's going there. Nobody knows anything for sure beyond speculation. There's also a tendency to project that prospects will always go to the bigger name school. Dorial Green Beckham was at one point"projected" and rumored to either be picking Oklahoma or Arkansas over Missouri. There's nothing concrete out there to know for sure how he is leaning, and it's possible he hasn't even made up his mind yet.

Huge news:

https://twitter.com/_Trayjacks/statu...456792576?s=19

Tray Jackson decommitted from Minnesota this evening and committed to Mizzou. Huge get after losing out on Liddell.

Evidently the team also thinks there's a decent chance Dru Smith gets a waiver and is eligible this season.

Jackson is a huge get if they can hang onto him. They need a replacement 4 in a big way. I think he was probably waiting to see how the Liddell decision went and when that playing time opened up, he made the switch...