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#23 Jakeenan Gant
Freshman, Forward
6'8" 207 lbs
Springfield, Georgia
Effingham County High School
Sam Snelling -
As exciting as it was to land a player of the caliber of Montaque Gill-Caesar, my favorite player in the freshman class is Gant. His potential is through the roof. He's a 6'8" pogo stick of a combo forward and he could be whatever player he wants to be if he works hard enough. There aren't many players who are a legit 6'8" who have the kind of fundamentally sound jump shot that Gant has. It's still developing on how much that shot goes in, but the structure is there. The sky really is the limit.
Mizzou was lucky to keep Gant around since he was a strong 4-star recruit, but they had the benefit of his mother already moving to Missouri to be closer to her son and watch him play in college. Coupled with his close relationship with Tim Fuller and Kim Anderson was able to keep around the top recruit of the Frank Haith class. With Gant and MGC, the Tigers have a wing and a forward to build around for the future, and guys that could both contribute a lot this year.
However it's still a pretty raw situation for him, and he's still developing. Up front, it's hard to know what to expect. We didn't get 6 points a game from JW3 last year, and he was higher rated out of High School. So I think it's safe to say that year 2 is going to be the bigger one for Gant, but he should be able to help a lot. And I imagine there will be a lot of exciting dunks and putbacks that he'll provide us this season.
HHKB Chris
Jakeenan, another freshman that I'm expecting some big things from. If we can get him and JW3 on the floor at the same time during meaningful periods of time in big games, we should expect Mizzou to be winning some games.
If we're getting similar production from Jakeenan as we got from JW3 last year, than that's great news. If he can get up to 9 points and 8 rebounds by the end of the year, expect big things. Looking forward to seeing how he progresses and how he matures into the 4 spot because next year we're going to need him and JW3 to be on the floor at the same time with the departure of Post and Rossburg.
CBonerfied -
The four spot is where this team most excites me. I think Gant and JIII are two VERY exciting prospects and could grow into a formidable rotation at the four spot, complementing each other pretty well, or even a tandem of bigs against athletic, smaller teams. If we're looking for a stretch four, I think he's our guy. Looking for 20 or so minutes, maybe 7-8 PPG, and 5-6 rebounds per. Anything more would be gravy.
Wooderson -
jakeenan gant- taken jean nag