Mizzou put its best foot forward for a huge basketball recruiting weekend

Cuonzo Martin is obviously not done putting the pieces of his 2017 class together, but he got one step closer with Blake Harris’ Sunday commitment. And Mizzou as a whole evidently put its best step forward this weekend during visits from Harris, Mizzou commit Michael Porter Jr., and uncommitted blue-chipper Kevin Knox. From a PowerMizzou Q&A:

Harris said all three visitors were blown away by the treatment Missouri's students gave them on the visit. [...]

"I talked to Michael and Kevin about it and they said nobody else has ever treated them like that," he said.

From the staff to the students, the community went out of its way to show these recruits love (and if you were following the right people on Twitter, you saw that it allllllllmost got a little bit creepy; but whatever, they evidently enjoyed it).

By the way, here’s where things currently stand, scholarship-wise:

To generalize, that’s basically three points (Terrence Phillips, Blake Harris, Jordan Geist), four wings (MPJ, Jordan Barnett, C.J. Roberts, and Cullen VanLeer), and four bigs (Kevin Puryear, Reed Nikko, Mitchell Smith, Jakoby Kemp). Obviously Roberts can play point guard as well, but, well, I said it was a generalization.

So now we wait. Knox will probably take his time in reaching a commitment decision, and Martin will have at least one more scholarship to work with even if Knox comes aboard. Jeremiah Tilmon should get a release from his letter of intent today, so I assume he’ll be visiting Mizzou soon, and Martin’s going to fight it out for four-star, increasingly-in-demand Edwardsville (Ill.) guard Mark Smith until he’s not an option anymore. You figure there might be at least one more transfer coming, too. So the news is far from over.

More Basketball Links

• Recent history suggests that grabbing a single top recruit might not be enough for a huge turnaround. Of course, Mizzou’s certainly working on grabbing more than one...
• I hadn’t caught on that LaPhonso Ellis’ son was among the 2018 prospects Cuonzo Martin had offered at Cal.
• Enjoyed this “Hey, Mizzou’s been good at basketball before, remember?” Mizzou Network retrospective.

More Links:

• Missouri is definitely trying to keep up in the scholarship arms race. Under Jim Sterk’s direction, Mizzou currently ranks fifth in the SEC in the amount of cost-of-attendance grant it gives to each student athlete.
• After dropping the first game of the series at Georgia to stretch its losing streak to seven games, Mizzou Baseball charged back to win the last two — 8-5 on Friday and 6-1 on Saturday at SunTrust Park — and take the series. Since this season has only existed in streaks, here’s to a few more wins in a row now (or, like, 18).

• Apparently only one diamond team can be doing well at any given time. Right around the moment that Mizzou Baseball got things back under control, Mizzou Softball slipped. Cheyenne Baxter shut No. 25 Arkansas on Friday, and the Tigers took a 5-3 lead into the seventh on Saturday, but then everything reversed. Arkansas scored three in the seventh to steal the game, then scored three in the fourth inning of game three to win, 4-2. Basically, two innings cost Mizzou not only a series win, but a sweep.

• Mizzou Women’s Basketball coach Robin Pingeton sat down for a Q&A with The Trib’s Joe Vozzelli Jr. “I think the depth that we're going to have, as long as we can embrace it and continue to play for the front of the jersey, which I believe these players understand the importance of it, it's going to be fun. We'll be creative with it. I think we have a chance to look at Amber Smith playing more on the perimeter this year depending upon what happens with some late recruiting. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. There are a lot of moving parts and pieces. That's what's so exciting about the offseason. You can't predetermine anything.”
• Another tough SEC weekend for Mizzou Tennis. The Tigers wrapped up their 2017 home slate by nearly knocking off No. 24 Tennessee and then having to face No. 2 Georgia and getting swept. With a top-50 team, Mizzou is currently 1-8 in conference play and 10-10 overall.
• Mizzou Track & Field went to the Crimson Tide Invite and racked up top-10 finishes and top-five finishes.
• Mizzou Women’s Golf finished tied for 10th out at Arizona State.