With or without Jontay Porter, Missouri’s hoops roster is going to be *long* in 2017-18

ABC 17 had quite the special guest for its Sunday sitdown: Mizzou commit Jontay Porter. Naturally, Andrew Kauffman teased the line that everybody was listening for:

It’s a funny situation, knowing that a decision has probably (but not definitely!) been made and pretending it won’t be made for another month or so. But with or without Jontay in 2017-18, Mizzou’s roster has been dramatically remade, or resized, this offseason.

After the offseason roster reboot, Mizzou will have at least four, possibly five players who are 6-10 or taller on the 2017-18 roster. Michael Porter (6-10) is more of a perimeter player but will add size to the rotation. Jeremiah Tilmon (6-10) will figure into the mix inside, along with a healthy Nikko and the 6-10 Smith, once he’s fully recovered from last year’s torn ACL. Jontay Porter, a 6-11 forward, could reclassify and join the roster a year ahead of schedule. That would give MU five players 6-10 or taller for the first time since 1995-96 and just the second time in school history.

According to Mizzou historian Tom Orf’s records, Norm Stewart’s team in ’95-96 featured the 7-foot Haley twins, Sammie and Simeon, plus Monte Hardge (6-11), Derrick Grimm (6-10) and walk-on Dustin Reeve (6-10). No other team in Mizzou history featured that many 6-10 players.

Quin Snyder’s seven Mizzou teams featured only two players 6-10 or taller: Pat Schumacher and Jeffrey Ferguson.

Long live Pat Schumacher.

Other Recruiting Links:

• Three-star 2018 wing Gabe Brown visited Columbia this weekend. PowerMizzou’s Alex Schiffer caught up with him after the visit.
• In football, one of the Tiger 10 (I guess we probably don’t need to be calling it that anymore) is back on the market! Sort of! CBC receiver and Nebraska commit Cameron Brown got an Ohio State offer recently and decommitted from Nebraska shortly thereafter. He claims those two things are unrelated.

You know the best way to prove that, Cameron? By committing to Mizzou, naturally.

• Two pretty big-time out-of-staters say they’ll be visiting Columbia soon: Montgomery (Ala.) offensive lineman Tank Jenkins and Missouri City (Tex.) linebacker Chad Bailey. Both are four-star prospects per the 247Sports Composite.
• Remember the story of Antar Thompson, the 2012 Mizzou commit who left school, took the JUCO route, and reappeared on the recruiting scene in the 2018 cycle? He had a Mizzou offer (which is at least a little odd when you consider the number of upperclassman DTs the Tigers will have on next year’s roster) ... and committed to Louisville out of nowhere yesterday.

In terms of scholarships and need, this isn’t much of a loss, but it would have been a pretty fun feel-good story for him to end up in black and gold.

More Links:

• The MLB draft begins today and will have a pretty dramatic effect on next year’s Mizzou Baseball roster. Up to seven Tigers will probably get drafted, but only Tanner Houck is guaranteed to leave. The Missourian has quick profiles on each potential draftee.
• “It’s like … girl power. It’s so cool to see.” The women stole the show this year for Mizzou athletics.
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