Missouri will say goodbye to a host of seniors. None have been around for more than a few years.
One of the things we’ve talked about regarding College Basketball, but specifically Dennis Gates and his approach to building a roster, is continuity. Gates is one of the few high major coaches who seems to want to keep his players around, but Kobe Brown was the last Missouri player to spend all four of his seasons at Mizzou.
Obviously that’s not Gates’ fault, he barely held onto Cuonzo Martin’s last recruit, Aidan Shaw for his initial roster. And Shawn left for his final season at Boston College
this year. Since then Gates has retained two of his signees from his first full cycle class, Anthony Robinson and Trent Pierce. But both are juniors. If they opt to return to Mizzou next year they’ll be the first players since Kobe.
This isn’t a Missouri problem, obviously. Gates taking over 4 years ago limits his ability to have guys for 4 years. And clearly the transfer portal has made keeping and developing players over multiple years all the more difficult. The Tigers signed three freshmen in that 2023 class, and two still remain. They signed 5 the next year and three are still around. We’ll see as we get closer if everyone sticks around or not, but if you look around the rest of the league… it’s pretty similar.
I saw this statistic shared by CBSsports.com’s Isaac Trotter:
Shawn Jones, Jr was an unheralded 3-star recruit out of the Houston area. He originally committed to Texas State, and signed and enrolled late for MSU, when Chris Jans had just taken the job. So perhaps an even more rare case of a player who was signed that late, and stuck with it for four years. But Jans has developed Jones into a reliable role player over the years.
Which also goes to another point Trotter made in the same Twitter thread, that there have been 41 coaching changes since 2023 in the high major ranks. Coaches just aren’t given the same kind of runway they used to, and Administrators are more than willing to just run a coach off after a bad year. Coaches in the SEC who have been at their school for 5 seasons?
Rick Barnes (11), Nate Oats (7), Porter Moser (5)
That’s it. Gates, Todd Golden, Lamont Paris, Matt McMahon, Mike White, and Chris Jans are all in year 4. Perhaps more stability in the coaching ranks, and more knows within the transfer portal will create more 4 year players.
I checked the Georgia roster and Blue Cain and Dylan Jordan are still on the roster there from the 2023 class. Florida signed both Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh. Tennessee still has JP Estrella and Cade Philips. Mississippi State still has Josh Hubbard. So that’s your total list of players who still have a chance to play 4 years if they come back next year: 9 guys including the two at Mizzou.
As for the Tigers and players on the roster, the senior videos are already rolling out:
Being honored tomorrow will be Mark Mitchell, Jacob Crews, Shawn Phillips, Jayden Stone, and Jevon Porter. Although, I’m not sure about the last one. It’s weird that he hasn’t played in two plus months. I’m not breaking any news here, but pointing something out.
More good news on the Diamond Sports front, Mizzou Baseball continued their winning streak by beating UIC 9-8. The Tigers have now won 9 games in a row, and their overall record improved to 11-2.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
So I guess we only published one thing yesterday? Things were busy all week and then we just had nothing to talk about, I guess.
If you are into Brackets, DataMizzou published his updated Bracketology over at RockM+:
We’re getting down to nut-cutting time, folks. The calendar has flipped to March. For those of us who work hard on getting bracket projections right and more importantly, those jockeying for positioning in the NCAA’s spring gala, the time has drawn near.
I’m going to spare most of the monologe this week and share the numbers. As you’ve become accustomed to, you get TWO charts for the price of a single click!
The current status of the bubble:
He’s still got Missouri pretty safely in the tournament. They’re not a lock, any win the rest of the way should just make them safer. But there are only two more guaranteed games left before the big tournament starts. That’s the home game against Arkansas tomorrow at 11am, and then whatever the SEC Tournament brings.
Over the past few months, we have reviewed Bart Torvik and Synergy to identify potential transfer portal targets. We have also received preliminary information from Trilly and other sources regarding player availability. Primarily, this exercise is focused on evaluating options that could strengthen the roster.
@datamizzou can provide his own insights, but I wanted to share this initial overview for everyone’s benefit.
The initial pool includes 123 players across all positional spots. Earlier this winter, I passed along some of the results of my very, very early searches for wings and bigs. Later, our search grew to include combo guards, a decision made after Sebastian Mack slipped way down the rotation. Then, just to be safe, Matt Watkins went scouring for hybrid forwards.
The work the Matts do over there is pretty unrivaled when it comes to Mizzou Basketball.
Rock M Radio: The guys previewed the WR room
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