Missouri Basketball is Hot on the Recruiting Trail

No Morning Zou today. Not many links to put out unless you want to debate the moral issues of Lebron, Nowitzki and the NBA Finals. The one big thing that did happen this weekend over in Columbia was a few visits by a few basketball players who could hold the future of Tiger basketball in their hands…

As time goes on, it will probably become more and more evident that basketball is the sport I love, and football/baseball are the sports that keeps me preoccupied until basketball starts up again. Sure, I may have to deal with the crippling fact that Kansas basketball has approximately one billion more wins than Missouri, but it’s something I can handle.

Now that Mike Anderson has flown the coop for his old stomping grounds in Fayetteville, the Missouri faithful are now showing their faith in Frank Haith, and though we don’t yet know just how well Haith will measure against Anderson when actually coaching the game, we may be close to finding out what Haith can do on the recruiting trail.

Along with help from assistant coach Tim Fuller, who is notably respected for his recruiting abilities, Haith and company have been making some waves early, and the results of this recent group of visitors to Mizzou is easily the most important time in the new head coach’s tenure so far. Here is a look at all of the names who have recently been tied to the University of Missouri in basketball recruiting news…

The Transfers

George Goode: 6-8, 230 lbs. Forward

Goode announced his transfer to Mizzou four days ago (June 9) from the University of Louisville (Tim Fuller’s previous place of employment) after playing for the Cardinals for three seasons. During his final season at Louisville, Goode averaged 2.9 points and 1.4 rebounds per game in an average 8 minutes per game. Goode, who use his final year of eligibility to play for the Tigers this season, will likely provide some much-needed minutes off the bench to give Laurence Bowers and Ricardo Ratliffe a break. The rest of the Tiger frontcourt currently consists of fellow senior Steve Moore, who will also give big minutes off the bench, and sophomore Kadeem Green, who did not play during his freshman season due to injury.

Keion Bell: 6-3, 200 lbs. Guard

Bell played for the Pepperdine Waves for three seasons, and averaged 18.5 and 18.9 points during his sophomore and junior years respectively. Now the high-scoring guard is looking to transfer to a big time school for his final year of eligibility, and according to CBSSports.com, his short list is Texas A&M, Missouri, and possibly Oregon. Bell has already made his visit to Mizzou, and will also visit TAMU before making his final decision. Bell will sit out the 2011-2012 season and play his final year of eligibility in 2012-2013.

Jamal Coombs-McDaniel: 6-7, 210 lbs. Forward

Despite winning a National Championship with the UConn Huskies, JCM is transferring from Connecticut in search of more playing time. He has already visited Hofstra, and now Coombs-McDaniel will look to visit Missouri before deciding between the two. Jamal is a lanky forward who is known to shoot the ball from behind the arc frequently despite a not-so-good percentage from three; last season he was 24-84 from deep, good for .286 percent. He averaged 5.6 points and 2.6 rebounds as a sophomore for the Huskies, and scored more than 20 points in two games (25 against Providence and 23 against Georgetown, both wins). Like Keion Bell, Coombs-McDaniel would have to sit out the upcoming season before being eligible for play again.

Earnest Ross: 6-5, 215 lbs. Guard

Ross averaged 13.1 points, 2.1 assists, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game for the Auburn Tigers. Despite Auburn’s dismal record (11-20, 4-12 SEC), Ross still managed to put up good numbers against good competition. Ross is showing some interest in Missouri thanks to the pitch that after he sits out the upcoming season, he would have an immediate opportunity to start with wing players Kim English and Marcus Denmon finishing up their senior seasons. Ross had this to say in a recent article by Steve Walentik:

"“They have a lot of seniors graduating,” Ross said. “A lot of seniors at my spot are graduating, so that is something that they are pitching to me. It’s a very interesting point just because of the simple fact that with me transferring, I expect to go into a school and make an immediate impact. So that is something that is being presented to me at this time.“Like I said, coaching staff’s great. From what I hear, the campus is very nice. I can’t wait to get up there and take a visit.”"

Indeed, Ross has just finished his visit to Mizzou, and will now have to decided between it and a lot of other schools. Schools that have contacted Ross include Marquette, West Virginia, Clemson, VCU, and Florida State.

Class of 2012

Note: Missouri currently has one “strong verbal commit” in Quantel Denson, a power forward coming in from Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas. The rest are players still deciding on a school.

Rodney Purvis: 6-3, 185 lbs. Shooting Guard

This is the big fish that could really put Haith, Fuller, and the rest of the Missouri staff over the top in the recruiting field. Purvis is a five-star recruit across the board on the recruiting sites on the internet, and is listed as the number one shooting guard in the class of 2012, and the number seven overall player in the class of 2012.

Purvis was at one point in time a commit to Louisville (again, where Tim Fuller was prior to his hire at Missouri), but he dropped his commitment not long after Fuller left Louisville for a position in Columbia. As it turns out, Purvis has a strong relationship with Fuller (there’s that North Carolina connection again) and that could be what helps bring Purvis to the University of Missouri. After making his visit to Columbia last weekend, Purvis tweeted a little optimism for Tiger fans everywhere:

"Liking everything about this already !"

That said, this tweet obviously isn’t anything concrete; Purvis probably had a few tweets like this one when he was committed to Louisville. There are still a lot of schools after Rodney Purvis (Duke, NC State, Memphis, Kentucky, and Louisville is still in the picture as well), but Missouri probably has a good chance at landing him. Keep your fingers crossed.

Class of 2013

While a lot of people were wondering if Frank Haith would be looking to add some size to the Tiger roster in order to fill out the 2011-2012 roster, that time passed quickly and with no recruits or junior college transfers, and instead Haith landed his first two recruits for the 2013-2014 season in local product Ishmail Wainright, a small forward from Raytown, and Tyrek Coger, forward from Raleigh, North Carolina. Wainright is currently listed as number 40 overall in the Rivals 150 for top basketball recruits and is good friends with Coger, who recently played for the Chris Paul All-Stars in AAU basketball.

Coger and Wainright, who also visited Mizzou a couple of days ago, were joined by fellow class of 2013 players George McClinton, a 4-star small forward and teammate of Coger on the Chris Paul All-Stars (McClinton is number 96 in the Rivals 150), and Duane Wilson, a 3-star guard from Milwaukee.

Needless to say, Fran Haith knew that this off-season would be very important, especially in terms of recruiting, and so far he has done all the right things. With early commits for the future in Wainright and Coger, interest in capable transfers, and strong cases for landing huge recruits (especially Rodney Purvis), Frank Haith, Tim Fuller, and the rest of the Missouri Tigers coaching staff has looked great on the early recruiting trail. Hopefully we will get news on some of these recruits in the near future, and hopefully we’ll have some of these great players don the black and gold for their college careers.