Earnest Ross is a Missouri Tiger

TAKE DOWN

A few days ago, a gaggle of moderate-to-highly touted recruits and transfers visited the University of Missouri and immediately started getting our hopes extremely high with not-so-cryptic tweets and lots of nice compliments about Mizzou and its respective basketball players.

As of right now, we currently have our first new Tiger from that bunch of visitors in Auburn transfer Earnest Ross, who will sit out the upcoming season, and then play out his final two years of eligibility in black and gold.

The story first broke on Twitter from Missouri’s own Kimmie English.

"ALL #MIZZOU FANS, go welcome the newest member of the program. @earnest33_ross, big time scorer and rebounder, xfering from #Auburn.. #MIZ!"

Not long after English tweeted what would have been a horrible practical joke if not true, Gabe DeArmond of PowerMizzou.com confirmed that Ross indeed will be playing for a new Tiger team in the future.

"Just got a text message from Auburn transfer Earnest Ross. He has committed to play for #Mizzou. Sit one year, two to play"

Ross will be one of the replacements for senior guards English and Marcus Denmon. Ross, who averaged a team best 13.1 points and 6.6 rebounds in a decent SEC conference while playing at Auburn. He will likely be a starter when he is able to resume play during the 2012-2013 season.

This is a big grab for Coach Haith and company, as the 2012-2013 Missouri roster had originally consisted of just Phil Pressey, Mike Dixon, Quantel Denson and Kadeem Green after the transfer of Ricky Kreklow. I’d be lying if I told you that I watched a lot of Auburn basketball last season, but looking at the averages Ross put up in an athletic conference like the SEC will give any fan a little hope that this guy can contribute to Missouri’s success after the 2011-2012 season. Especially noteworthy is Ross’s 6.6 rebounding average, which is fantastic for a guard, and which would make him one of Missouri’s top rebounders in the previous season.

Anyways, props to Haith and the rest of the staff for another big grab for the Tigers. Judging by the early success, and by the continually optimistic and possibly tortuous tweets from Rodney Purvis, I’d say that Missouri will be just fine in the recruiting department despite this sudden transition from Mike Anderson to Frank Haith. Now what we really need to see is how this will all look on the court in the next few seasons. It’s still a work in progress, obviously, but I’m giving Mr. Haith an early ‘A’ for his off-season work.