Mizzou inks five players to start off 2021 class

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Due to Missouri’s senior-laded current roster, the 2021 recruiting class has long been expected to be a big one for Cuonzo Martin and his staff. Wednesday, the Tigers officially added five players to it.

All five of Missouri’s committed prospects — Trevon Brazile, Anton Brookshire, Kaleb Brown, Sean Durugordon and Yaya Keita — signed National Letters of Intent with the Tigers on Wednesday. The group represents a positional mix. Brookshire profiles as a point guard, Brown and Durugordon as combo guards who can play the wing, Brazile as a combo forward and Keita as a center.

On paper, the signing class may not exactly pop. Rivals ranks the class as the 39th-best nationally. All of the prospects received three-star ratings, and only one, Keita, ranks among the Rivals150. Neither Brookshire nor Brazile received an offer from another high-major program.

However, Martin believes the players can develop into a core group of contributors for years to come. He praised their work ethic and characterized all five players as “students of the game,” which is something he and his staff look for in recruits. He also said all five show a genuine passion for basketball.

“I feel like they’re all somewhat students of the game, and I think that’s very helpful,” Martin said. “Not so much watching highlights, but it seems like they try to watch games, and I think when you’re trying to become a good basketball player, you have to study your craft, study players that you liked, continue to work on your game, but you have to be able to watch the game.”

There’s another theme among the signees: familiarity with Missouri. Three of the five hail from within state lines: Brazile and Brookshire both play their high school ball for Kickapoo in Springfield, while De Smet’s Keita becomes the sixth player from St. Louis to sign with Missouri since Martin took over as head coach. Keita also plays for a former Martin assistant in De Smet coach Kent Williams. Brown is likely more familiar with the Tiger program than all of them. The Alabama native said he was on campus seemingly every weekend last winter to watch his brother, Missouri sophomore forward Kobe Brown, play.

Martin acknowledged that the staff could well add more players to the 2021 class during the spring, either from the high school ranks or the transfer portal. But for now, here are his words about each signee, plus quotes from each player about his future with the Tigers.

In a class full of late-bloomers, Brazile, especially, has seen his stock soar over the past six months or so. At one point, he toyed with the idea of reclassifying to the class of 2022 to improve his college prospects. But after he performed well in a couple late-summer tournaments, Missouri got in touch, the communication facilitated by Brookshire. Brazile tweeted that he had received a Missouri offer around 4 p.m. on Sept. 8. By 8 p.m., he had committed to the Tigers.

Brazile averaged 11.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game as a junior. said Missouri primarily sees him as a small forward at the next level. Martin characterized him as a player who has long had the tools of a high-major player, but he just started to put them all together in the past few months.

“He’s a guy who you saw, even in past years, he had the parts,” Martin said. “At 6-(foot)-8, almost 6-9, long, athletic, can put the ball on the floor, can block shots, can run the floor, can do a lot of things.”

Brazile said he conversed with the Missouri coaches for about a month prior to receiving a scholarship offer and he built a good relationship with Martin and his assistants during that time. He’s always followed and liked the Missouri program, and staying in-state appealed to him, as well.

“I’ve built a pretty decent fan base in the state of Missouri,” he said. “It’s close to my family, my family can probably come watch every one of my home games. So it’s really important, it’s really great that Mizzou is so close to my hometown.”

Martin said the key for Brazile will be continuing to add strength to his wiry frame. If he does that, Brazile believes he could contribute as a true freshman next season.

“I feel like I can come next year prepared to play,” Brazile said. “I can bring a lot of defense and altering shots to the team. I feel like if I work from now all the way until we go onto campus, then I can definitely see myself playing a little bit next year.”

Like Brazile, Brookshire didn’t wait long to commit to Missouri. Back in May, less than 24 hours after receiving a scholarship offer, he became the team’s first commitment in the 2021 class.

At that point, Brookshire hadn’t received any other high-major offers, but his recruitment had been picking up. He listed Michigan State, Iowa State, Kansas State and Creighton among the schools showing him interest. But he was drawn by Missouri’s coaching staff, history and proximity to Springfield.

“I liked the coaches a lot,” Brookshire said. “And just like the atmosphere and the history that the University of Missouri has. I just thought that, with talking to family and the atmosphere and talking to coaches, I just felt like that was the right school for me.”

Martin characterized Brookshire as a hard worker, saying he works out two to three times per day at a facility owned by his uncle in Springfield. Like Brazile, Brookshire said the biggest thing he’s looking to improve prior to arriving on campus is putting on muscle.

Brookshire said Missouri is recruiting him as a point guard. He’s been a prolific scorer in high school — he averaged more than 20 points per game as a junior — but he said the best attribute that he can bring to Missouri will be his leadership.

“I feel like I can just be a great leader,” Brookshire said. “Since I’m a point guard, if I come in, be a great leader, just get my teammates involved and just do whatever it takes to win, I feel like that’s my responsibility and my role. Whether that’s to score, pass, play defense, whatever it takes to get the win.”

Even though Brown has become close with the Missouri players and staff since his brother enrolled more than a year ago, it wasn’t a sure thing that he would follow suit. His father, Greg Brown, said Kaleb generally likes to zag when his older brother zigs. But during a recruiting cycle when visiting schools became impossible as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brown said his familiarity with Missouri led him to Columbia.

“Since I couldn’t really visit anywhere else, I really was just comfortable, going up to Mizzou every weekend to watch my brother play,” Brown said. “And just knowing the staff, they’ve been recruiting me for the longest. So just a trust factor there.”

Even though he stands 6-foot-6, Brown has spent most of his basketball career playing point guard, and he said Missouri plans to keep him in the backcourt. Kobe Brown described his younger brother as a pass-first player, saying he would rather record an assist than score any day. Martin paid the younger Brown high praise by comparing him to Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green thanks to his size, skillset and basketball IQ.

“I had one of my buddies, he was out playing in California last year, one of my friends, he saw him and he didn’t know who Kaleb was, he didn’t know I knew Kaleb, and he said, ‘Man, there’s a kid out here who reminds me a lot of Draymond Green,’” Martin recalled, “and it was obviously Kaleb.”

Brown believes he fits into Missouri’s “positionless” system well because of his combination of size and skill. Asked whether Brown could follow in his older brother’s footsteps and see significant playing time as a true freshman, Martin said he has the ability to do so. Given the number of guards likely to depart the Tiger roster after this season, he might have to.

“I think he has the parts to contribute from day one, yes,” Martin said. “But I think a lot of it has to do with your adjustments away from home, how quickly you pick things up, and like Kobe, he’s a guy that can play multiple positions, as well. So I think that’s helpful. But I think he has the body, frame, the intelligence to play from day one, the ability to pass the ball, facilitate.”

It’s become common practice for football prospects to graduate high school a semester early and enroll in college early to get a head start on learning the ropes. In basketball, not so much, largely due to the fact that the basketball season bleeds over into the second semester and teams are capped at 13 scholarships during the season.

But that’s the plan for Durugordon, an athletic wing who chose Missouri over Auburn, Arizona State, Georgia and others. Once he found out he could graduate high school in December, Durugordon said he and his family approached the Missouri staff about enrolling in January, and the staff liked the idea.

“I felt like going there in January is going to give me a head start in the weight room, learning their plays and stuff like that, so come the fall, next fall, you know, I’ll be ready to go physically,” Durugordon said. “I’ll already know all the sets and stuff like that so I don’t feel like there’s anything that’s holding me back from contributing immediately next fall.”

Initially, when Durugordon made the plan to enroll early, the idea was for him to redshirt this year. However, now that the NCAA has declared this season doesn’t count against the eligibility of any winter sport athletes, Durugordon could theoretically see playing time and still count as a freshman during the 2021-22 season. But Martin said the staff would rather not put him on the court quite yet.

“As of today, we have a desire not to play him at all, so it would be more of a redshirt year,” Martin said. “But he will get a chance to practice with our team, and I’m hopeful that we don’t have guys that go down due to COVID where you have to put him in a situation, because that’s not the plan at all. The plan is to have him as a redshirt, continue to grow, get him around the guys, and I think it will be great for him.”

Durugordon averaged an impressive 23 points and 11.5 rebounds per game last season. Martin characterized him as a strong, physical slasher who is at his best around the rim. He said his jump shot still needs to improve. Durugordon, who said the biggest factor in choosing Missouri was his relationship with the coaching staff, said one of the reasons he and Martin clicked was his passion for playing defense. He believes he can bring that to the college level, whenever he makes his debut.

“That’s something that I take pride in a lot, just being gritty, just being a tough player that’s going to really lock up on the defensive end,” Durugordon said. “So I feel like that was the perfect fit on that side, too.”

Not only does Keita fit Martin’s description of a student of the game, he’s just a good student, period. Martin revealed Wednesday that Keita has been accepted into Missouri’s school of engineering, a rare major choice for an athlete.

Keita, who ranks as the No. 144 recruit nationally, seems tailor made for Martin. A native of Mali, he’s still raw, but Martin said he runs and jumps well, especially given his 6-foot-9 size. His strengths are defense and rebounding — he averaged 9.2 rebounds per game as a junior and once pulled down 26 boards in a single game. Plus, after playing his high school ball for Williams, who coached under Martin at both Missouri State and Tennessee, he’s already familiar with a lot of what Missouri runs.

“I think a combination of his work ethic along with coach Williams’ understanding of this level, but also familiar with me, so I think that’s very helpful,” Martin said.

Keita will have his development halted for a bit. About a month ago, he suffered a torn ACL, so he will almost certainly miss his senior season. However, he said he’s not concerned about his readiness for the 2021-22 college season, and he said the Missouri staff showed “unbelievable” support in the wake of the injury.

“He wants to be a good player,” Martin said. “... He knows that there’s certain things that he needs to get better at, but part of that is he’s a young man that’s willing to listen to coach Williams, to help him understand that if you want to be successful at that level, these are the things that you need to do. He’s doing those things.”