K.J. Walton Commits to the Tigers

Welcome K.J. Walton, the newest Missouri Tiger! Walton was on his official visit this weekend and decided to take the plunge with Kim Anderson and company. Walton's lead recruiter was Rob Fulford

KJ Walton just verbally committed to Missouri, a source told @ScoutRecruiting. Walton is a 4 star guard that can really score. Story coming

— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) May 9, 2015

photo credit: Doug McSchooler - Indy Star	K.J. Walton 6'4 | 180 lb | SG
	RIVALS 103	SCOUT 119	247sports 146	ESPN UR

From Steve Walentik's blog post on the Columbia Tribune:

Walton, widely regarded as a four-star prospect and one of the top unsigned recruits in the 2015 class, has also drawn significant interest from programs such as Xavier, Cincinnati and Minnesota.

But his profile has never been as high as one might have expected for a player who averaged 19.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.9 steals during his senior season and led his team to a 21-7 finish and an appearance in the regional championship game - the equivalent of the Elite Eight in Indiana high school basketball - for the second straight year.

"I think there's a couple reasons," Brownsburg Coach Steve Lynch said. "He's not been able to get through a July recruiting period without turning and ankle or banging a knee or whatever, so he hasn't been a highly visible kid, and I do think there are some things in terms of his overall - I hate to say academic performance - but I think there's just been enough things that have kind of kept him off the radar. He's certainly one of the most under-recruited players in the nation."

So K.J. is a 4-star prospect from Brownsburg, Indiana and we most recently talked about him in our recruiting catch up last week. He's been under recruited because of some early academic problems in high school which caused many teams to think he would end up on the outside looking in when it came to qualifying. I've seen him compared to former Mizzou Tigers J.T. Tiller in his body type and toughness. He's got a good explosive first step and is a decent shooter. From the limited film that's out there, it looks like his form isn't really the problem as it was with Tiller. He just needs more reps in they gym and he should be able to boost the 29% he shot in High School. But either way he's a physical 6'4" with long arms and should be able to progress into an elite defender as well as add some much needed toughness to the roster.

Momentum has been on MIzzou's side since they officially offered towards the end of April. That's when the "Crystal Ball" projections started to turn towards Mizzou.

He was at 80%, but Mizzou had garnered the last 8 predictions. And because it's always fun, some highlights.

So here's the updated scholarship set up

It's going to get crowded on the perimeter the next few years. 10 guys with more than a year of eligibility on the roster that can play on the perimeter.