Every year basketball fans see late-bloomers go from relative unknown commodities to skyrocketing up recruiting rankings. The state of Missouri and surrounding areas has had its fair share, such as current Missouri guard Mark Smith and Kansas' Ochai Agbaji in recent years. This year, it is Ryan Kalkbrenner. The latest 2020 Rivals’ 150 rankings were released on Tuesday and Kalkbrenner checked in at No. 68. He was the biggest stock riser of any player on the list, jumping 71 spots.
Any time a player jumps nearly half the list in one update, it is bound to turn heads. Kalkbrenner has done just that. The 7-footer from St Louis was on campus at Missouri on Tuesday for an unofficial visit. It appears Cuonzo Martin and his staff are prioritizing the shot-blocking extraordinaire. Kalkbrenner was also expected to visit Creighton on Wednesday and possibly Illinois later in the week. Ohio State is the latest to offer him.
Despite his big leap, Kalkbrenner is far from the highest rated 2020 target for Missouri. Josh Christopher remains the highest-ranked target, moving up one spot to No. 11. Isaiah Jackson, one of Missouri’s newest targets, checked in one spot lower than previous rankings, at No. 20.
St. Louis product Caleb Love saw a significant jump of his own. Love jumped six spots up to 32nd, where he remains right on the fringe of picking up a coveted fifth star. With the jump, Love also passed fellow St Louisan and Mizzou target Cam’Ron Fletcher. Fletcher saw the biggest drop of any of Missouri’s primary targets, falling nine spots down to No. 39. While Fletcher’s ceiling may be the highest of any player in the class, Love’s game is currently more polished and consistent. It will be an uphill climb for Missouri to land any of these four, all ranked among the nation’s top 40 players. We expect them to at least be in the hunt until the end for Christopher and Fletcher with Love seeming less likely. Jackson is more of a newcomer to our radar and with a number of big name programs having already offered, the Tigers could be a tad late to the party. Don’t entirely count them out just yet, though. Assistant coach Cornell Mann has made great inroads to the recruiting scene in Michigan (where Jackson is from) and its possible Missouri could get more serious about Jackson as the summer progresses.
John Hugley, another fairly recent target of Martin’s staff, didn’t quite match Kalkbrenner’s climb but managed to jump 48 spots and has now cracked the Top 100 (at No. 93). It remains to be seen how serious Missouri is about Hugley and what his level of interest is in the Tigers. At number 96, Carlos “Scooby” Johnson managed to jump three of his classmates. Missouri’s priority targets are rounded out in the rankings by Davion Bradford, who sits at No. 132 after falling two spots. Others on the list that hold Mizzou offers include Moses Moody (58), Ty Berry (141), and Luke Kasubke (142), though it does not appear the Tigers are prioritizing any of those prospects at this time. Missouri’s latest offer, Chanse Robinson, is unranked.
