Christian Guess talks Tigers
Late Friday night, Christian Guess surprised everyone with a commitment to play at Missouri. The 6-foot-6 small forward's name had never been tied to the Tigers, but Guess has been in contact with the coaching staff for a few weeks now and pulled the trigger after getting his academics in order.
Guess said Sonny Johnson, the coach at Garfield Heights in Ohio who had previously sent Frankie Hughes and Willie Jackson to Mizzou, reached out to the Tiger coaching staff on Guess' behalf in August.
"Coach Martin called me and we just took it from there," Guess said.
Guess signed a Letter of Intent with Mizzou on Saturday morning. He flies out of Cleveland for Columbia on Monday morning. Guess will be immediately eligible and said that he is enrolled in classes that haven't started yet so he will not be behind when he gets to campus.
“We’re very excited to have Christian join our Mizzou Basketball family,” Mizzou head coach Cuonzo Martin said in a release. “He has tremendous athletic ability and a scorer’s mentality. Christian’s competitive drive and desire to get better will fit right in with our program. We’re looking forward to getting him to Mizzou.”
"Guess reported offers from DePaul, Kent State, Toledo, Ohio, Indiana State and James Madison. West Virginia had expressed interest and brought him to campus, but a number of schools were unsure of Guess's academic situation and went with other options. Guess said he had a biology class that was supposed to be completed prior to the start of his senior year, but hadn't been due to an oversight by his school. He completed the class and Missouri filed a waiver on his behalf, which was accepted by the NCAA.
Mizzou had a scholarship come open when Cullen VanLeer announced his retirement earlier this week after having knee surgery.
"Coach Martin told me he likes my aggressiveness, passion and the edge and the chip I play with," he said. "I’m kind of an attacker, north and south kind of guy, end to end, open court. I’m looking to get better shooting, tighten up my ballhandling, learning as much as I can and paying close attention."
Cornell Mann was the lead recruiter on Guess, who says he hasn't really discussed his role as a freshman with the Tiger coaches, but "whatever they need me to do, I’m all for it."
Guess averaged 12 points as a freshman and 22 as a sophomore at Glenville High School in Cleveland. He finished his career at Shaker Heights where he averaged 26.2 points as a senior and had 20 or more 14 times, including a school-record 57 in one game.
Guess will enroll at Missouri immediately. He will move to Columbia and begin classes this week. After a long recruiting process full of questions, he finally has a college home.
"It’s big," he said with evident relief. "I was kind of going through a little depressed moments where I wasn’t eating good, I couldn’t sleep. Once this came about everything is like okay, I can breathe again."