Mizzou Basketball Player Previews... Montaque Gill-Caesar

#13 Montaque Gill-Caesar

Freshman, Guard
6'6" 215 lbs
Vaughan, Ontario
Huntington Prep

Sam Snelling -

If there was bigger news for Missouri basketball this summer over the signing of Teki Gill-Caesar, I'm not sure what it would have been. MGC was the first guy that made the hiring of Rob Fulford pay off. He was a top 40 player in the 2015 class, so he's a younger guy, who reclassified to 2014 in August, and chose the Tigers. He's been raved about by just about everyone around the program. He's a good interview, and a seemingly good kid. I don't think it will be too long before he's considered by many the face of Missouri basketball.

Whether that happens this season remains to be seen. He has the ability to be the guy, but he's still a late re-classifier, so having high expectations from the outset might be putting an unfair burden on him. I would love for MGC to take the mantle as the top scorer on the wing from the outset, but I prefer to temper the expectations for him upfront and just hope that he can win the starting job and by the end of the season be a high impact type of guy. The type of player that he is right now, he's a physical wing who is a good athlete. He can get to the rim and in turn get to the free throw line. He can shoot a little bit, passes sometimes too much, and handles the ball well enough to play off the ball. It will remain to be seen if MGC is a 4 year guy, he certainly has the ability to declare early, but there is good hope that with his reclassification he will want to play at least 3 years, and possibly 4 as a Tiger. Expect good times ahead because of guys like him.

HHKB Chris

I feel almost bad for Teki, the expectations are going to be sky high, or at least as high for those that have been paying attention. When Coach A talks about a freshman starting, you have to think he's implying MGC.
Hopefully everyone keeps their expectations in check and remembers that he's a freshman and a young freshman to boot after having re-classifying to the 2014 class. But if the prognosticators are right and he proves to be the man people expect him to be, then we should see big things from him.
The hope is that by mid season he's emerged as the go to scorer allowing everyone else to work around him, feed him the ball and allow JW3 to focus on boards and put backs.

[Editor's note: When I saw Teki pull this spin move off live I exclaimed out loud. Nevermind he missed - great move]

CBonerfied -

Basically use what I wrote for Namon Wright here, with one additional point: we've been hearing A LOT about this guy lately, and it's gotten borderline exciting. (Borderline. It takes a lot to excite me now, apparently.) If he's our slasher/finisher from the wing with Wright being our shooter, that would be greeeeeeat. Best case scenario: leading scorer (maybe around 13 per) and our most efficient offensive player. Most likely: some ups and downs, but still at or very near double digits in scoring.

Wooderson -

montaque gill-caesar - allocating marquees, lacquering oatmeals, maniacal ogler quest, metro lasagna clique