Catching up on Mizzou Basketball Recruiting: March 2015 edition

With March coming to an end, the spring recruiting period is about to heat up. The last time we chatted about recruiting it was the end of February and Mizzou was really trying to just make it to the end of the season in once piece. With the news coming out about Tim Fuller yesterday, we've seen the first step towards remaking this roster and staff for next year. There will be more on that in the coming days, for now let's stick to the plan and talk about recruiting. I apologize if this post is a little messier than usual, the Fuller news caused a bit of a disruption in the news cycle.

The scholarship situation hasn't changed since last time, but the graphic has (you may have noticed a new header image too)!

Mizzou is likely to have some roster turnover that is "unexpected" from a standpoint in that an underclassmen leaves before his eligibility is up. At this point we don't have names of who they are and who they might be and we'll just address the changes as they come. In the meantime, let's kick this off with a few new names, because that will give us a better expectation of what Mizzou plans on doing with their last scholarship.

Shortly after the last update was published news came out that Mizzou had offered Martavian Payne and Russel Woods of John A Logan College in Illinois. JALC is located in Carterville, IL which is where Kim Anderson was headed when his plane had to stop for an emergency landing. That night JALC was playing Vincennes Univeristy, and KA was going to check out Mychal Mulder but also scout Payne and Woods. So let's kick this off with some quick words on both those two...

JUCOs

• Martavian Payne is a 6'2" 170 lb combo guard who originally hails from St. Louis MO where he went to Imagine Prep. Payne started High School at Marquette and played as a freshmen with Ryan Rosburg. He then transferred to Imagine, and when Imagine closed he ended up at Madison Prep. Payne was a bit of a victim of the St. Louis school system, and never made it to Southeast Missouri State after signing a Letter of Intent to play there. After two years of playing at JALC he has offers from Missouri, Creighton and Kansas State. Payne shoots over 42% from 3-point range, and was the MVP of the regional tournament that helped get JALC to the national tournament this year.
  
  
• Russell Woods is a 6'8" 220 lb forward who played high school basketball in Chicago at Simeon with Jabari Parker. Woods is a highly athletic player who won't wow you with skills but can rebound and score the ball through tough defense. Something the Tigers needed this past year. South Carolina, Kansas State, Houston and DePaul are the other schools in contention for Woods. Word is that Woods offer is a committable offer.

Good news is that both players are scheduled to visit Mizzou on March 30th.

• Mychal Mulder scheduled a visit with Creighton, his first official visit this weekend. Mizzou is still working on getting him on campus, and from what it sounded like the Tigers will get one. Mulder comes across as a pretty loyal guy, so Wichita State, Creighton and Mizzou should all get visits since they were the first three schools to offer him a scholarship and seem the likeliest landing spots for Mulder. He also has an offer from Mississippi State, but that was days before Rick Ray was fired. Minnesota has also recently offered. Once a visit is set up I'll pass it along.
  
  
• Kyle Meyer is also working on getting a visit to Mizzou, but it would appear that he is a backup at this point. Woods is the top post target in the JUCO ranks. And Mizzou has talked about bringing in more than one post, but I think they'd like to bring in a Grad Transfer if that's the case.

Graduate Transfers

It's important to remember that ANY transfer Mizzou looks at will have to be immediately eligible. If a player pops up on your twitter feed and you think it would be a good fit at Mizzou, dismiss that player if they aren't going to be eligible to play next year. Fifth-year senior transfers fit that description because its a short term solution to experience while also keeping a scholarship open for next year.

The first name to make it onto their list is Mike Thorne Jr., a 6'11" 270 lb center who has been at Charlotte up to this point. Thorne is a redshirt junior and on track to graduate at the end of the spring semester meaning that he would be eligible to transfer. Evan Daniels reported that 27 schools have reached out to Thorne, Mizzou is one of them. The benefit to Thorne is that he brings immediate production (10 ppg/7 rpg last year), and keeps a scholarship open for the 2016 class where Mizzou is in on a lot of recruits.

Mike Thorne Jr. (Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports)

Tyler Harris, a 6'9" Forward from Providence by way of NC State, is another post player with immediate eligibility. Derrick Gordon, a combo guard from UMass, is also a player that I'm sure the coaches will check in on. I know these players are on the short list at this point, but I don't think either player is that likely as they both expressed a desire to play in the NCAA tournament next year, and that may not be realistic at Missouri. There are a few other names floating around, but until it solidifies a bit more I'll keep it short.

Moving on to non-grad transfers

• The latest on Kobe Eubanks is that he's setting up visits to schools. He's already been to Oregon and Texas, and the 3 others of the final five are Georgia, UCLA and Missouri. At this point I think that the two schools that he's already visited are leading, with Texas being the most likely at this point, but the coaching situation as UT isn't clear, which could leave Eubanks on the market long enough for Mizzou to make an impression. This is also a place where the Fuller situation might hurt Mizzou as Fuller was the initial contact with Eubanks going back to the Frank Haith days, and even though Fulford took over as lead recruiter months ago, it might still affect Eubanks decision on Mizzou. Mizzou has to get him on campus for a visit, and there hasn't been one scheduled at this point.
  
  
• Tyson Jolly is somebody that I've kept a close eye on, and for a while it looked like he might reclassify to 2016 since he missed so much time last season with a health issue, but as it stands Jolly has gotten several high major offers and has a lot of interest from Cal, Oklahoma State and SMU, and it's looking more and more like he's destined for college ball next year, and will be a good pickup for anyone that signs him. At this point I think Jolly likely ends up somewhere else, but Mizzou might be able to get in late.
  
  
• Thomas Bryant has had basically nothing new come out on him in a while. Syracuse looks to be all but out with their scholarship situation, Kentucky is hovering due to their possible turnover after the season, Indiana is leading the way at the moment, but Mizzou has been told they are not out of the running. It would seem that Mizzou's best chance at this point is at the Dicks Sporting Goods National Tournament in New York City April 2-4th where Oak Hill (and Mizzou commit Terrence Philips) and Huntington Prep will be participants. The more time Phillips has with Bryant the better. It's still a long shot at this point though.