Cam’Ron Fletcher boasts new offer, Caleb Love runs down his impressive list

We have long known — and discussed — how important in-state recruits will be to the next few years of Missouri basketball, and 2020 is squarely in our sights with the 2019 class all wrapped up.

We’ve had some of the same names on our radar for years now — Caleb Love, Cam’Ron Fletcher — and others have become just as familiar in the past few months — Ryan Kalkbrenner, Davion Bradford. Love and Fletcher have long been viewed as the major prizes of the Missouri class, high-ranking four-star recruits who play at positions of importance for the Tigers’ system under Cuonzo Martin. And as with any recruit of high stature, Missouri has known for a while that it would have to fend off some attractive suitors.

On Monday, the competition for Fletchers’ services took another step up.

The Tigers’ main competition for Fletcher has been viewed as Michigan State, but obviously the introduction of North Carolina is a another step forward in this particular race. UNC is about blue as blue bloods get, and it could signal that the Vashon forward is on the radar of the top programs in the country as they look to lock in their classes.

Meanwhile, point guard Caleb Love is just as hotly pursued. In an interview with Rivals’ Eric Bossi, he ran down his loooooong list of suitors, including the home town team ($$).

Nothing groundbreaking there, but it’s always good to hear the player in question say there’s a strong relationship in place. Love is the highest-ranked of the Missouri recruits (at least for now), and could potentially be part of a dazzling 2020 class for Martin and his staff. Like Fletcher, though, he’ll be hard to get as the nations biggest names come calling, including UNC and Kansas, whom Love visited last weekend.

Kalkbrenner, on the other hand, hasn’t been approached by any blue bloods just yet. The center recently rose to the Top 70 by Rivals’ estimation, and so far Missouri is competing with the usual Midwest suspects — Illinois, Kansas State, Ohio State, and the like.

Strap in, Tiger fans. We’re probably still a few months away from finding out what Martin can do to lock down the borders.

Yesterday at Rock M

• Revisiting the Mizzou Baseball draft class of 2018

More Links:

• We’ve been thrilled about the prospect of adding Kelly Bryant and Jonathan Nance to this year’s Missouri team, but they aren’t the only newcomers to the SEC. Dave Matter at STL Today lists a few that could make an impact.
• Speaking of newcomers...

• A good day for premium subscribers at PowerMizzou, as Gabe’s Monday morning thoughts succeeded a round up of underclassmen visiting campus this past weekend (both $$).
• Finally, Paolo Uggetti at The Ringer (a great website) profiled Jontay Porter ahead of this week’s draft.