8/14/2023 football Edit

Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning presented by Will Gar...

Gabe DeArmond • PowerMizzou

Publisher

Gabe has covered the Tigers for PowerMizzou.com since August of 2003 and been the site's publisher since 2006.

We'll start with Tiger basketball because the football and recruiting stuff is going behind the paywall. So those reading the free portion, you should sign up.

1) On Friday night, Dennis Gates landed a commitment from four-star big man Peyton Marshall. Whether he’s 6-10 or 7-foot, a little over 300 pounds or a little under doesn’t really matter. He’s big. No question. It was Gates’ second four-star of the week after the Monday commitment of Marcus Allen. It continued an absolutely remarkable first 17 months on the job for Mizzou’s coach. It would be hard to nitpick a single thing he’s done since getting the job. Sure, his team lost to Princeton in the NCAA Tournament and it wasn’t quite ready to take on Kansas in December, but those are individual data points. On the larger scale, everything the man has done since coming to Columbia has been touched with gold. Eventually there’s going to be a time when things aren’t perfect, but I’d advise continuing to enjoy it while they pretty much are.

2) Missouri’s class is currently sixth in the country according to rivals.com. That’s before a late August visit from Annor Boateng, the No. 21 prospect in the class and the highest-rated four-star in the country. Getting Boateng (or Ryan Jones or any other top 150 player they’re on) would virtually guarantee a top ten class for the Tigers. That would be their first since 2017 when Cuonzo Martin’s class finished fourth. That haul included the nation’s No. 1 player in Michael Porter Jr., three top 50 prospects and five in the top 136.Here are the other standout hoops classes this century:

2003: Linas Kleiza (17), Thomas Gardner (35), Jason Conley (big-time transfer)

2004: Kalen Grimes (63), Glen Dandridge (92), Jason Horton (59), Marshall Brown (42)

2010: Tony Mitchell (12), Phil Pressey (61), Ricardo Ratliffe (No. 1 juco)

2014: Jakeenan Gant (52), Namon Wright (73), Teki Gill-Caesar (unranked four-star due to late reclassification)

With the benefit of hindsight, the hope is this 2024 group would be better than any of those. Arguably Mizzou’s best hoops recruiting class featured Kim English (111), Marcus Denmon (150) and Laurence Bowers (unranked). So of course we have no idea how this one will turn out in the end. But Gates has now landed commitments from seven high school players since he came to Missouri. All seven have been four-stars. All seven have been in the top 125 in the country in their class. That’ll play.

3) Of course you’re here because Williams Nwaneri, the No. 3 player in the country, is just hours from making his announcement.

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