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The Jeremiah Tilmon saga is now over. Again. And, this time, almost certainly for good.
“It’s certainly been an interesting recruitment to follow,” Rivals.com national basketball analyst Eric Bossi said. “The kid doesn’t say a lot, but there are multiple people who are said to have his ear at one time or another. He commits to Illinois, then he says he’s not gonna sign, then he signs, then I’m sticking with them (after the coaching change) but then I’m backing out. If that’s not a roller coaster of a recruitment I don’t know what is.”
Tilmon signed with the Fighting Illini and John Groce last fall. When Groce was fired and Brad Underwood was hired (and retained assistant Jamall Walker on his staff), it seemed Tilmon was still Champaign bound. Then, on April 5th, Tilmon asked for his release from Illinois. It was granted six days later.
On Monday morning, Missouri announced Tilmon was a member of Cuonzo Martin’s first recruiting class.
“It’s truly exciting to keep a young man like Jeremiah at home with Mizzou Basketball,” Martin said in a release. “Jeremiah, as a player and person, possesses the type of skill and presence we’d like to become a staple of this program. We feel that he has the ability to become a game-changing presence on both ends of the floor. His parents, April and Jeremiah, Sr., raised a son who we feel can really flourish at the University of Missouri.”
So the attention now turns from a wild recruitment to what kind of a player the Tigers are getting.
“He’s a big and I don’t want to call him totally raw, but a somewhat raw big man that you can mold,” Bossi said. “He’s got good athleticism, good instincts for blocking shots and getting rebounds. The big thing with him will be to get that motor going all the time and what he can do once he gets in a college weight lifting program.”
Rich Gray is the founder of the St. Louis Eagles basketball program, now Brad Beal Elite. Tilmon played for the Eagles two summers ago, prior to his junior year of high school. Following that summer, he left to play in prep school at La Lumiere.
“He went to prep school and he got even better,” Gray said. He’s a strong post player, finishes around the basket very well, can be intimidating and block shots. Footwork needs to continue to get better. I saw a little bit of him at prep school and I saw improvement in his footwork. He uses his body well. I think he’ll be very, very successful on the college level because a lot of the physical contact that is a foul in high school won’t be called a foul in college.”
Gray said Tilmon is “absolutely” a traditional center, a position that grows more rare every year on the college level. He joins Michael Porter Jr., C.J. Roberts, Blake Harris and graduate transfer Kassius Robertson in Martin’s first recruiting class.
Tilmon has yet to comment at all on his decision. PowerMizzou.com is attempting to reach him.
“I used to have to drive him home from practice,” Gray remembered. “In those conversations, if we said about 15-20 words to each other that would be a lot. He’s very quiet, but a very nice kid, very respectful. He’s just a very nice person, which you want.”
