Scholarship Math: Jason Crowe, Jr. sets a precedent for the 2027 roster

Katie Goodale / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It’s been a minute, but did you hear the news that Dennis Gates got a commitment from Jason Crowe, Jr? He’s just a top 10 5-star combo guard listed as being the best scorer in the 2026 recruiting class. Here’s 247sports.com’s Adam Finklestein on Crowe:

The southpaw guard is one of the most prolific scorers in high school basketball. While he may not have overwhelming size or explosiveness, he’s highly skilled and equally crafty with the basketball.

He’s a deep shooter, with range well beyond the three-point

line, but he also has an exceptionally deep bag to rely on when creating his individual offense. His shot-making off the dribble is extremely potent. He has a shifty handle, can stop quick for tough pull-ups, or create space with step-backs. He has an advanced understanding of how to navigate a ball-screen and a wide assortment of clever tricks including polished footwork and a variety of different fakes. He can also go to his float game or lay-up package when he gets deep enough.

Crowe is a volume scorer, who can rattle off buckets in bunches when he gets going, but also has stretches where he can monopolize the ball and hunt shots. There have been times, especially with USA Basketball, where he’s shown floor-vision and passing ability, and that will be an area of his game he’ll likely have to lean more into more in the future.

Physically, he needs to continue to get stronger, so that he can absorb contact in the lane and hold up on the defensive end. He’s young for his grade, and already shown some physical maturation, but will need to keep progressing and simultaneously embrace the defensive end of the floor.

Overall though, he has a special ability to score the basketball that has produced a record-setting high school career and should translate up levels.

So that happened and it’s pretty cool.

One thing we haven’t looked at in a while is the scholarship math side of things.

So let’s take a look now, of course with the usual SCHOLARSHIP GRAPHIC™:

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As much as anything, we know how roster construction can change drastically in one offseason. It’s one of the main reasons I’ve ditched more than just one season ahead. There’s just no point, there’s barely one for expecting any one player to be on the roster beyond this one season.

Dennis Gates and Missouri aren’t immune from the transfer portal and roster turnover, but at least this past season have shown a bit more resilient than the rest of the SEC.

I still think we’re in a weird period of coaches and staffs figuring a lot of this out. But at least for the Tigers it seems like they’re prioritizing what they’re good at: high school recruiting and retention. From that standpoint, Crowe may be just the beginning.

There are five players with expiring eligibility, if we’re counting eligibility like normal... which I think is still being litigated. So it’s also entirely possible at some point players are granted a 5th year. But for now we’ll go with conventional wisdom, and 4 year seniors will see their eligibility expire this year.

With five spots opening up, and one remaining free, Missouri has several spots to fill going into next season. What might originally be looking like a smaller freshman class could expand a little larger if you believe the tabloids (recruiting sites rumors).

Mizzou is tracking 5-star post Toni Bryant, 5-star post Ethan Taylor, 4-star post Tristan Reed, and 4-star wing Aidan Chronister. If you’re projecting what the roster will look like two years from now, at this moment it’s something like this:

One thing we’ve figured out in the transfer portal era is that post players are expensive, and guards are plentiful. That might explain why there are several high profile post players being recruited and just one elite scoring guard in the mix.

The wing is light, but Trent Pierce can flex there, and Gates has traditionally liked deploying multiple ball handlers. Even if there is a departure via transfer or the draft, any combination of Anthony Robinson II, Sebastian Mack, T.O. Barrett, Aaron Rowe, and Jason Crowe, Jr should be more than enough to handle the ball. The interior, though, is certainly light.

Mizzou has had trouble keeping, and developing, interior talent. Which explains the hard pivot to Bryant, Taylor and Reed.

Assuming anything more than a year out is a lot, but the rumors surrounding Gates pursuits for the rest of the 2026 class might lead you to believe he’s gotten pretty aggressive in assembling the talent needed to cap off his class, and the 2027 roster.

What happens from here?

Probably not much initially. There are visits happening beginning at the end of this month. Tristan Reed is up first, Toni Bryant is expected in September, and Ethan Taylor should be in shortly after. Chronister is on a different path, being a wing and not a big. But ideally Mizzou would end up with two of the bigs, and an additional wing.

There’s a long way to go but Gates is certainly making all the right moves to have a big payday. He’s swimming in deep waters, let’s see how much of this he can pull off!

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