E.J. Liddell is off to Columbus
When Cuonzo Martin was hired to help Missouri basketball turn its fortunes around, one of the key promises of his tenure was that Martin would almost certainly start recruiting better talent to Columbia. It hasn’t taken long for that promise to come to fruition — Michael Porter Junior, Jontay Porter, Jeremiah Tilmon, Mark Smith, Dru Smith, Kassius Robertson, Mario McKinney, and others would likely have taken their talents elsewhere if not for Martin’s savvy.
However, even the best recruiters lose now and again. Thus was the case Monday evening, when Missouri’s biggest target came off the board without black-and-gold.
THE NEXT CHAPTER.... pic.twitter.com/JH6D15zckI
— E.J. Liddell (@EasyE2432) October 1, 2018
Don’t bother watching until the end, unless you’re really interested in the preceding 100 seconds. He picked Ohio State.
Let’s not kid ourselves: this stings. Liddell fit a lot of what the Tigers were looking for, and would’ve represented a major recruiting win for Martin and the program. And with the commitment of Tray Jackson to Minnesota in September, Liddell was pretty much the only option left on the board. Eric Bossi at Rivals pointed out as much.
There are not many others on Missouri’s recruiting board and with their recent success on the transfer market and within the junior college realm, look for the Tigers to sit tight and make another move towards the latter half of the college season.
McKinney is still a good anchor for this class, and there’s still some time until the curtain closes on the 2019 cycle. We’ll see how Martin and company can recover from this loss.
Football odds and ends
We’re a few days out from South Carolina, but football news is starting to ramp up again from the bye week. Alex Schiffer had his weekly, “Five Things to Know,” piece on the battle of the Columbias. And next week, when Mizzou makes its first trip Bryant-Denny Stadium to face the Crimson Tide, everyone in the country will get to watch on national TV.
Pro: Hey, a prime time game!
Con: ...which will also mean getting a prime time beatdown.
Oh well. What’re you gonna do? Maybe Drew Lock can earn himself some brownie points by having a workmanlike performance against the closest thing to an NFL defense he’ll see before 2019.
Yesterday at Rock M
- Pete and David are back with more Zoukeepers, this time debating the importance of this weekend’s South Carolina game and talking about Barry Odom’s recruiting strategy
- Missouri lacks a clear fallback plan after missing on E.J. Liddell
More Links:
- Basketball recruiting may be stinging, but the Columbia Tribune detailed how MU is looking to re-establish a pipeline through St. Louis.
- Dave Matter did a Q&A piece with analysts on Mizzou’s staff. If you would have asked me what their job was before I read this piece, I 100 percent guarantee you the words, “analyze,” and, “football,” would’ve clumsily spilled out of my mouth in the first three seconds. (Heads up, the piece is a little dated as the interviews were done before the Georgia game.)
- Gabe did his Monday Morning thoughts and Live Q&A yesterday, and PowerMizzou also has some usual recruiting stuff up for football and basketball. ($$)
- We’ve talked a lot in recent weeks about the possibility of Missouri chasing a grad transfer quarterback. ESPN profiled one QB you’ll recognize who chose to stick it out where he was even after he lost his job.
- Good news for people who like watching good quarterbacks: Trevor Lawrence is practicing again for Clemson after last week’s scary neck injury.
- The latest College Football Empires Map is up on SB Nation, and Missouri still isn’t listed after their loss two weeks ago. Props to LSU, though, who currently rules the entire state of Alaska.