Tigers Lose Out on Commitment From Jimmy Whitt

At 5 pm tonight, consensus 4-star recruit Jimmy Whitt announced his commitment to Arkansas. To start, who is this kid? Well, you haven't been paying attention to my very thorough recruiting breakdowns if you can't answer that question. And well... that hurts my feelings. But here are his recruiting profiles:

#55 from 247Sports, #1 in Missouri

#52 from Rivals, #1 in Missouri

#63 from ESPN, #1 in Missouri

#52 from Scout, #1 in Missouri

And a highlight video for fun. He's pretty good.

It should hurt a bit that Whitt chose Arkansas. Mizzou reportedly had all the momentum in the process as Anderson, Loos and company had set up the full court press to keep the local kid at home. It did appear that they were operating a bit from behind since the Arkansas staff had been recruiting Whitt since their days at Missouri. They had the history and relationship with his family on their side. The story will of course go that another Mizzou coach lost out on a highly ranked in state recruit. We won't be able to stop that beat from playing.

Quite honestly, and I said the same thing about Alex Ofodile, I have a hard time blaming a kid for wanting to get out of town. It's one thing for Mizzou to lose out on a guy from Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield or Jefferson City. That's a home state kid. You should get those kids. It's another thin entirely to lose a kid from Columbia because sometimes they just want to get out of town. A player from St. Louis or Kansas City is still a few hours from home. So it is getting out of town. And Whitt had that same opportunity, to go to a school where his is very comfortable with the coaching staff and is away from home.

Arkansas is a good fit for Whitt. He's a long, rangy combo guard who can defend like crazy and hit open shots. He's fast and athletic and passes the ball well. He'll be a good player for the Razorbacks and is one of Mike Anderson's highest rated recruits since he's been there.

Why you should NOT panic as a Mizzou fan: Whitt is a great player and a kid that was right under your nose, but Mizzou has a lot of depth, and young depth. Whitt will join a roster in 2015-16, and Mizzou will have 7 players that can play on the perimeter that aren't freshmen. And Mizzou is not done with recruiting. They're still in the mix on Antonio Blakeney, who is a player very similar to Whitt but maybe a bit more explosive. They're still trying to get in on Shake Milton, and have a couple other guys like Cullen VanLeer that can take that spot and be a solid 4 year guy.