It’s barely mid-September, the Mizzou Football team has just defeated their most hated rivals, and the Witten Family Men’s Basketball Head Coach is landing 5-star forwards. It’s been a pretty good week to be a Missouri fan.
Back in the spring the outline seemed simple for Missouri, they were hunting Arkansas wing J.J. Andrews as what looked like a headliner in their recruiting class. There was a little
movement around 5-star post Toni Bryant, but common sense said to pay more attention to 4-stars, and local products, Ethan Taylor and Tristan Reed. Mizzou had casual mentions around 5-star point guard Dylan Mingo, but the class looked like it would be a very solid one if they could kick it off with Andrews, then add a post or two, plus a long term shooter like Aidan Chronister.
But plans changed, Andrews picked Arkansas, and Dennis Gates pivoted hard by landing 5-star scoring guard Jason Crowe, Jr. The first surprise. Taylor blew up the rankings a bit and cut Missouri from his list, in a move that shocked most in the industry. But don’t fear, the Tigers were able to land Bryant instead.
If you’re looking for more about what sort of player Bryant is, click the link above and read Matt Harris’s full commitment post. Better yet, subscribe to Rock M+ and go check out his visit primer which is even more in depth!
I’m not going to spend much time on who Bryant is as a player, because this is about how he fits into the roster.
So to begin, let’s take a look at what we know. That begins with the usual SCHOLARSHIP GRAPHIC™:
We talked on the podcast this week about the room on the roster to be aggressive with the rest of the freshman class. Adding Crowe and Bryant starts your class in a very big way. Obviously the whole roster count is far more of a question mark these days, you can always count on some turnover.
If there’s one area Gates has been pretty solid it’s getting buy-in, but there’s also a real chance someone makes a jump enough to step into the NBA Draft process. But currently if you’re looking at the 11 players projected onto the 2026-27 roster, none stand out as transfer portal types at this point. And with 5 graduating players it seems like you already have a solid rotation built in. Especially if Nicholas Randall and Aaron Rowe develop.
At minimum we’re looking at four remaining spots. Here’s how it looks by position:
Bryant is a bit more of a true 4 than what we envision as a center. So there’s a difference between Trent Burns and Toni Bryant, but you are likely to see at least some time with Bryant playing at the 5. If you’ve got a small ball lineup featuring a 6’9 pogo stick at in the middle, you’re probably doing ok and can survive rebounding with good size at other spots. Missouri is still pretty light on the wing, but with Pierce and Boateng there should be enough depth to cover your minutes.
But that’s also where the rest of the recruiting class can help.
I mentioned in the last Scholarship Math post how Mizzou has struggled to keep and develop interior talent, and they are loaded up on good guards. With Bryant coming online next year the interior situation improves a bit. You just hope we begin to see what you want from Burns and Randall.
What happens from here?
There’s been a fair amount of digital ink spilled on the relationship with Missouri and Tristan Reed, and Reed and Bryant can fit well together as their skills are different. Bryant is a top level athlete, he’s projecting to be more of the type of player who will move around the floor. Reed is a bit more college game ready, from day 1 he’ll be ready to defend, rebound, and catch and finish at the rim.
Reed is still visiting schools, he was just at Mississippi State, and he’ll trek to Ohio State and Michigan State.
Missouri is still planning on hosting Aidan Chronister, and we’re positive that a high shooting wing with great positional size would be a great way to cap off the class.
There are still a lot of moves to make, and don’t forget that 4-star CG Scottie Adkinson is already on board for the 2027 class.
