The early signing period for high school basketball players ends today. For the Missouri Tigers, it ended late last week. When Marshall Brown sent in his letter of intent to play for Quin Snyder, the Tigers had their class of four and the staff’s recruiting for 2004 was finished.

I am not going to critique this class for you and rank it against the others in the nation. I haven’t seen a single one of Missouri’s recruits play in person, though that will change if Kalen Grimes can get Hazelwood Central deep into the playoffs. I don’t know a thing about a lot of the so-called top recruiting classes like Arkansas, Indiana and Louisville. I’ll leave the rankings to the guys whose job it is to put together such lists.

I’ll just say this about Mizzou’s recruiting class: this one should make Tiger fans very, very happy.

For the third consecutive year, Quin Snyder went out and got the best player in the state of Missouri. Whether Kalen Grimes is Mr. Show-Me Basketball or not remains to be seen, but everybody who’s anybody ranks him as the top senior in the state. Gary Pinkel talks often of sealing the borders and getting 90% of the best players in the state to stay in the state. It’s a little different in basketball when you are talking about taking one, maybe two guys a year. But the philosophy is the same.

“We want to have the best players in the state of Missouri come to Mizzou,” Snyder said. “I think it’s been a process for us. It’s been great with our camps and our clinics getting to know high school coaches even better. We didn’t necessarily have a lot of those relationships when we got here, but I think the kids in the state love the school. Unfortunately, you can’t always take everybody. It doesn’t always fit. We’ve been fortunate, I think the kids that we have gotten, have really had productive careers so far as well.”

To Grimes, the Tigers add Marshall Brown, a Texan who reeks of being the next Rickey Paulding. They got their point guard of the future (again) in speedy Jason Horton. And they added Glen Dandridge, a player who’s flying under the radar a little bit considering the hoopla surrounding his classmates. Dandridge is probably the best shooter of the bunch according to reports.

For the second year in a row, Snyder and his staff have gotten a group of recruits to Columbia that ranks among the nation’s best. What Snyder is developing in Columbia is a program and a tradition. If the Tigers do what many expect them to do this year, and stay out of NCAA jail, there is no reason to think any recruit is out of Mizzou’s reach. Missouri is now a program that is mentioned by the Luol Deng’s and the Linas Kleiza’s of the high school hoops world. Will Mizzou get every one? No, but neither does Duke, even if it sometimes seems that way. Being in contention with almost every one of these guys is a heck of a place to start.

That these four recruits are heading to Columbia says even more. These kids are putting their lives and their careers on the line at a time when it might not be the most popular thing to come to Columbia.

No one can say for sure what will happen with the hoops program. Rumors swirl, but until the NCAA reaches a verdict, nothing’s etched in stone. Snyder, and his assistants, have convinced these kids this program is worth investing in, despite any other thing they may hear. I’ve never been in the room when Snyder has recruited a kid, and chances are almost nil that I ever will be. I have no idea what he says to them, what he sells to them. Whatever it is, it’s working.

Kleiza, Mizzou’s most heralded recruit possibly in the history of the program, had a simple explanation when asked what the coaches used to sell him on Mizzou.

“Truth,” he said. “Just truth.”

The truth is that Quin Snyder is becoming one of the best recruiters in America. This year we get to see if he becomes one of the best coaches in the country.