Ten Monday Morning Thoughts
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1. Jontay Porter declared for the NBA Draft over the weekend. He will hire an agent. That does not mean he can't come back. But barring something completely unforeseen, he isn't coming back. Truthfully, and I've said this before, if he says he wants to come back, if I'm Cuonzo Martin, I probably say no. Best case scenario, he's ready to play in about February. Best case scenario. And he's probably not 100% of himself. And then you have to integrate him into the offense. When the question was posed how well Missouri would be able to do that with Michael Porter Jr. in the last two games of 2018, most people laughed and called them stupid and said "A player that good, you don't have a problem." Missouri had a problem. It was plain to anybody who watched the last two games of that season. Plus, there something to be said for moving on from this era, which had plenty of positives, but was also, as it's been described to me many times, a "circus." So if I'm Martin and he wants to come back (which he won't), I'd say, "If you want to walk on, that's great. But we don't have a scholarship."
2. I understand that the immediate question everyone will have now that Jontay is gone is "What happens with Michael Porter Sr.?" And nothing has changed on that front. I'm told that Martin isn't going to fire him. He might reassign him to a different role in the basketball program, but unless he leaves of his own volition (something I don't see happening), Porter Sr. is going to be involved in the program in some way. It seems to me at this point we're past Cornell Mann or Chris Hollender leaving. If Porter Sr. is reassigned, Mizzou would have a spot to fill. I've been on the "hire Corey Frazier" bandwagon because it makes the most sense to me. But someone posted last week that Frazier doesn't have his college degree. If that's the case, he can't coach here. At this point, my guess is that the staff returns as is for next season and then Martin replaces Porter Sr. after next year when the contract is up (and, no, again, he's not going to keep him around for more time in hopes of landing one of the younger Porter siblings...if those kids are good enough and they want to come to Missouri, then Martin might very well recruit them, but if they come here, it won't be because dad is on staff).
3. There are technically three open scholarships right now. One is going to Parker Braun barring a complete change of direction at this point. With Eric Williams committing to Oregon, Missouri seems focused on Kobe Brown, the former Texas A&M signee right now. From what we know you'd have to put him atop the wish list. As far as the final scholarship, the options would be these: