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basketball Edit

Hoops Recruiting Reset

With the summer hoops recruiting circuit going full speed, we catch up on the latest with some of Mizzou's higher profile targets.

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It has been an eventful few weeks for Caleb Love. The nation’s 32nd ranked player picked up an offer from North Carolina, took a visit to Kansas, which led to an offer as well. This past weekend Love spent his time at the U-19 Team USA Camp. From all reports out of the camp, Love had an impressive showing at the event. Rivals' very own Corey Evans mentioned Love as one of the standout high school performers of the event, which also featured college players. Team USA announced its 18 finalists from the camp, which will be trimmed to 12 to make up the U-19 team, and Love was not included.

It has been said a number of times but it is hard to imagine a world in which Love ends up in Columbia, Missouri. He has continued to climb the rankings and with that, high level offers have continued to roll in. Virginia, Indiana, and Louisville have all been in on Love for some time now with North Carolina and Kansas being the latest to the party. Any time the blue bloods come knocking, it lowers chances for anyone else, and if we’re being honest, those chances weren’t that great in the first place.

Eric Bossi sat down with Love for a Q&A


Cam’Ron Fletcher didn’t have the best spring playing for Bradley Beal Elite. Teammates Moses Moody and Love outshined him during the EYBL season, leading to a small drop in the Rivals150. This past weekend was a bit of a bounce back. Fletcher spent the weekend at the NBPA Top 100 Camp where his performance impressed a number of people including Roy Williams apparently, as North Carolina extended an offer to the Vashon standout.

The Tar Heels had been sniffing around on Fletcher for a good while before finally offering on Monday. West Virginia joined the party by extending an offer of its own to Fletcher Monday afternoon. The day was capped off by the announcement that Fletcher would be taking an unofficial visit to Kentucky over the weekend. Kentucky has yet to offer Fletcher but their presence certainly can’t help the Tigers' chances.

Eric Bossi mentioned on the site over the weekend that the blue blood programs seemed to be in a bit of a holding pattern; that may or may not have changed with all of Monday’s happenings. The good news for Tiger fans is that, as Bossi also mentioned, Cuonzo Martin and staff are on Fletcher’s trail stronger than perhaps any program in the country. Whether it be preference, or just sensing that their chances with Love have faded, it certainly appears that Fletcher has become priority 1 or 1a for Martin’s staff in the 2020 class.

Even with the addition of Axel Okongo, a post player remains near the top of the priority list for 2020 with Davion Bradford and Ryan Kalkbrenner emerging as the two most likely names. As we reported, Kalkbrenner was on campus at Missouri last week for an unofficial visit. Illinois and Creighton each got unofficials recently as well. Kalkbrenner will take his first official visit this upcoming weekend as he heads out west to Stanford. To our knowledge, the 7-footer from Trinity Catholic has not scheduled any of his other official visits.

Missouri remains fully involved with Bradford as well, though his recruitment has not taken off in the same way Kalkbrenner’s has. While Bradford remains a primary target, one the Tigers are thoroughly in the mix for, Kalkbrenner has likely jumped him on the priority list, in our opinion. Neither player has given clear indication of favorites and much could change over the next few months as the recruiting process unfolds further. One key factor with Bradford will be location. Our information is that he isn't likely to go too far from home.

Josh Christopher joined Love at the Team USA U-19 Camp over the weekend. Unlike Love, Christopher was selected to the list of 18 finalists that will advance to the next stages of camp. Being one of the 12 players selected to the team would be a huge honor for Christopher. On the recruiting front, things are fairly quiet for the nation’s 11th ranked recruit. Family ties are likely to keep Missouri as a listed finalist but chances don’t seem as high as they once did that Christopher will be the crown jewel of Cuonzo Martin’s 2020 class.


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