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basketball Edit

2017 Tiger Mailbag: 20th Edition

Every week, PowerMizzou.com publisher Gabe DeArmond answers questions from Tiger fans in the mailbag.  This format allows for a more expansive answer than a message board post.  Keep your eye out each week to submit your question for the mailbag or send them to powermizzou@gmail.com.  On to this week's inquiries.

BradN11 asks:  Other than MPJr, who/what are you personally most excited about with regards to this years basketball team?The obvious buzz around the program right now is incredible compared the past few seasons. Ex: I'm 3 years out of grad school and for the first time ever (excluding the college kid package) bought some basketball season tickets about 8 hours before MPJr committed. Since then I've had tons of other friends wishing they did the same and begging me to take them to a game this winter. Do you feel Mizzou fans may be blowing their expectations up a tad too much? (Side note, any idea/guess where we are on season ticket sales currently?)

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GD: There are other players? Seriously, though, I'm just excited for competitive basketball that people care about again. The last three years weren't fun for anybody. I didn't like going. It was work. This should be fun. People care again.

Are expectations too high? Probably. I mean, I don't go into this season expecting a national title or a Final Four. I think this team could struggle a little bit early because they're going to be real young and most of the guys in the rotation haven't played a game at this level. But it's a lot better than hoping you would see double digit wins. To me, expectations are finish in the top four in the SEC and wear white uniforms on the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Anything over that is gravy.

mexicojoe asks: Major League or The Sandlot?Barney Fife or Festus Hagan?Wiffle Ball or Frisbie?Chuck Taylor high tops or Air Jordan's?

GD: Major League, even though I love The Sandlot

Barney Fife cause I don't know who the other guy is.

Wiffle ball cause frisbee is dumb

Never owned a pair of either one

TheRoyalPain asks:  Is Drew Locks lack of success against better competition attributed more towards a lack of coaching, surrounding parts or being a highly overrated prospect with too much expectations heaped on from the fan base?

GD: I think it's mostly due to better competition being, you know, better. Last year should have been his first year as a starter. He made a lot of strides from his freshman to sophomore season. He needs to make as many this year. If he's struggling to be competitive in the SEC and getting dominated by all the good defenses he faces this year, we can start to talk about why he didn't live up to expectations. But it's too soon to do that right now.

Muletgr asks: I have not seen anything reported about Marcedus Leech for a long while. Has he fallen off the MU radar?

GD: For the most part, we've concentrated on 2017 and 2018 kids with a few rare exceptions. But Schiffer found out that Leech is supposedly hurt again (it's a reaggravation of a stress fracture in his foot) so I'm sure that's limiting any buzz on him this summer. But I can't imagine he'll fall of Missouri's radar. He's a really highly regarded guy.

ZouFan27 asks:  Who does HCCM sign for 2017 season?

GD: I'll go with Porter, Jontay.

Kamryn Babb was one of the standouts at Rivals 3-Stripe Camp in St. Louis last weekend
Kamryn Babb was one of the standouts at Rivals 3-Stripe Camp in St. Louis last weekend

MizzouBSC93 asks:  Are coaches allowed at the Rivals camps such as this past weekend in St Louis? If no, do the coaching staffs get the information like we do or is a report on results made specificity to sell to college coaches? Based on this STL camp, which kids will soon get on offer from MU?

GD: Coaches are not in attendance at those camps. And as far as I know, we don't sell the information. We report it, we use it in stories and our database, but we don't sell it. I will say that coaches are fully aware of how kids do at camps like this across the country. I am not sure any of them would get an offer based on this camp. Most coaching staffs are going to want to see the kids in person and see them camp at the school's camp if they haven't offered at this point. But coaches are definitely aware of how guys did.

Jay0864 asks:  I need a bit of Reclassification 101 education. Explain how a junior in high school reclassifies and can graduate a year early. When most of the questions usually are about qualification scores, there are kids like Jontay reclassifying and graduating early. How is that possible? Would they have been hitting extra courses from their freshmen year? And do they actually attend graduation day with the senior class? Is there summer classes they have to finish to reclassify? Or are these kids just super smart as well as super talented? What goes into actually being able to reclassify? And is this something more common that happens with non-athletes as well?I know my son just graduated from high school and I try to figure out how in the world he could have graduated a year early. These kids with all the basketball they play.....I can't figure out how they do it.

GD: That's a whole lot of questions. I can tell you that my son finished high school last year. He could take up to seven classes per semester, each for a half credit, so in the end that would add up to 28 credits. I think he only needed 24 to graduate. So had he taken a summer school class every year, he could easily have been done a semester or a year early. As it was, he took strength training every semester, had a study hall most semesters, and still didn't have a full slate second semester his senior year. Bottom line, it's not nearly as hard to finish early as you think (even though I don't understand it exactly and it seems to have changed a lot since I was in high school, which I know is weird since that was only 23 years ago).

jcr95 asks: With Daniel Parker Jr releasing his top ten, how much should Mizzou worry about Minnesota and P.J. Fleck taking a lead in the recruitment process?

GD: For Parker? I haven't heard much about Minnesota at all. More about Nebraska and Iowa. As far as worrying about Fleck and Minnesota in general? Nah. They'll get a kid here and there and they have always recruited St. Louis pretty heavily, but I think there are plenty of programs who should worry Mizzou more on the recruiting trail.

Blue Springs DL Daniel Parker released his top ten this week and Mizzou made the cut
Blue Springs DL Daniel Parker released his top ten this week and Mizzou made the cut (Nick Lucero/Rivals.com)

Zona Tiger asks:  1) Assume Jontay reclassified for this year. What do you think a reasonable expectation would be for this upcoming season in the SEC and NCAA Tourney? 2) What sort of impact do you think the Porters will have on the Tiger Basketball Program moving forward? Bonus question... On paper is this the highest ranked Mizzou class ever?

GD: 1. As I said above, top four is a reasonable expectation. The goal for the big tourney is to make it and be seeded to win a game. I don't base the season on what happens in March because it's so random and crazy things happen. If you're an 8 seed, you're good enough to make the Final Four if you get hot. If you're a two seed, you can lose the opener on the wrong day. I'll judge this season on whether they get there, not just on what they do if they do get there.

2. That's the question. In ten years, we're either going to look back and say "That's the group that turned this thing back around and maybe even took it to another level" or we're going to say "Remember that one time when they had the Porters? That was fun." Martin's job is to make sure we're saying the first thing and not the second.

Bonus: On paper, I'm pretty sure it is. At least since people really started ranking these types of things. I don't know where the Stipo/Sundvold class would have ranked, or some in the mid- to late-80s, but I'm pretty confident that Missouri hasn't had a top five class in the Rivals era.

austinanderson asks: Any updates or whispers about how TBJ is doing after knee surgery?Any update on the one JC DT who is not on campus or mentioned for graduation Malik Young?

GD: I asked about Beckner when I talked to Rohrk Cutchlow on Tuesday. Find it toward the end of this Q&A. Haven't heard anything on Malik Young. Don't think there's any reason to worry, but if I hear anything I'll pass it on.

bson24 asks: Who do you see as the starting 5 for this year? Far out there question when MPJ leaves do we predict we go to a bigger line up next year with Jontay and Tilmon? Have you heard anything about DE Tre Williams can we expect big things out of him this year?

GD: I don't think the starting five against Iowa State will be the starting five by the SEC Tourney. End of the year starting five I'll go with Phillips, Robertson, Porter, Porter, Barnett. But I think there are going to be times where they go big and you see both Porters and Tilmon on the floor together because Mike can play the three pretty easily.

On Tre Williams, haven't heard anything new since spring ball, but he looked huge in the spring and was getting some reps with the ones, especially once Marcell Frazier got hurt. He'll have a chance to win a starting job in August.

sbstlmo asks:  You have said numerous times, regarding basketball, that a coaching staff's responsibility is to recruit good players, and disregard (or downplay) their ability to actually coach the game. That an assistant coach is judged to be successful if he can get talent on campus. Somebody needs to be able to actually coach up the kids, no?

GD: Nah. Just roll the ball out and take your chances.

Of course somebody has to coach them. I've never said a coach is meaningless. Ever. I do think people overrate the coach, especially in basketball. Give me five guys that have more talent than your five guys and I bet I'll win a lot more than I lose. Not every time. But most times.

mugamer asks: I'm Cuonzo Martin and I'm bringing in 2 PG's, a SG, a SF, a PF and a C. Of those, 4 of them will likely be starters by opening day.Question 1:How much do I sell the current roster on 2019 in order to keep them engaged during 2018? At least one Porter is going to leave for the draft as well as those who are graduating which would assuredly open up spots that soon to be seniors will compete for.Question 2: Does Jontay have the potential to be a 1-and-done or will his youth and the maturity of his game catch up to him and keep him in college for another year or two?Bonus Question:Looking at who we are losing talent wise, what prospects would fill the obvious gaps created by departures at the end of next year?

GD: Welcome to the board, Cuonzo. Glad to have you here.

1. I don't worry about 2019. If they want to leave, let them leave. Sorry, but the last three years Missouri won 27 games. I don't think there are a lot of guys who have earned a whole lot of leeway based on those results. And I'd assume Martin thinks he's going to go out and get really good players again next year.

2. He could be a one and done. If he is, that's great for Mizzou fans because that means he played really, really well. I wouldn't say it's the expectation he will be, but I wouldn't say it's impossible either.

Bonus: Guys like Torrence Watson and Christian Bishop are out there. Schiffer has written about a ton of guys. We don't know what the priority level of those guys is for the staff yet. We'll get a better idea for that after the evaluation period ends in July and we start seeing who schedules visits.

The upshot is I'd tell you to enjoy this year and worry about next year in about 16 months. This year has a chance to be fun.

GREGGW126 asks: Gabe, any "inside smack" about the o-line"? Are they doing well? How does Lock look? I know it is extremely early, just curious if anything positive has manifested itself...thanks as always, very glad you made the ESPN cuts, shocking the magnitude...had a hell of a lot of respect for Dilfer.

GD: The guys aren't even in town. Literally nothing has happened since the end of spring ball. It's not that it's early, it's just that we haven't seen these guys for a month and even the coaches won't see them for a couple more weeks.

As for Dilfer and ESPN, glad to hear you like Trent. I have no connection to ESPN other than I watch it sometimes, so had they managed to fire me it would have been quite shocking.

rmotigers asks:  What has been more exciting to cover? The last couple months of Mizzou Basketball or the Conference realignment?

GD: Exciting? I don't know. Probably this because there have been times along the way where there were concrete stories to write and break. So that's good. Conference realignment was like two separate coaching searches that combined to last like three years. It was fun as hell and great for business, but in the end, we were all kind of guessing most of the time and we never knew when there would be an end or even IF it would end. But both were good for business and that's how I define exciting.

jake ludwig asks: Assuming Jontay Porter reclassifies and plays this upcoming season, do you think Mizzou will be ranked in the preseason top 25?

GD: I don't. I think they'll get some votes, but most voters are gonna say "They were one of the two or three worst Power Five teams in the country last year, I'm gonna have to see something on the court before I'm voting for them." And I think that's fair. I think this could be a top 25 team at the end of the year, but I wouldn't vote for it at the beginning of the year. My guess is they'll get enough votes to be in the Others Receiving Votes category somewhere between 30 and 40, but I don't see them ranked in the preseason.

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