Missouri basketball’s recruitment of Isiaih Mosley, a 6-foot-4 wing from Columbia, has picked up in recent weeks. To make this happen, Mosley just needed to be more outgoing.
Mosley’s trainer in Columbia, Devin Griffin, is from the St. Louis-area and has known MU coach Cuonzo Martin for years, according to the prospect, who stars for Rock Bridge High School, just down Providence Road from Mizzou Arena. Griffin told Mosley that if he wanted his hometown college to recruit him more, then he needed to show more interest. He sometimes needed to send Martin the first text.
So Mosley, who is playing for the Kansas City-based MoKan Elite team here at Nike’s Peach Jam tournament, did that. He and Martin have been talking more since.
“He just really wants to get to know me,” said Mosley, who plays patiently and under control. “He already knows I’ve got the game to play at the highest level. He really just asks me how I’m doing, how’s my family and stuff like that.”
Mosley also has scholarship offers from Bradley, SMU, Missouri State and Tulsa, where former Mizzou coach Frank Haith now is. About a year ago, Mizzou became just the second school to offer a scholarship to Mosley, who ranks 146th in the class of 2019 according to Rivals. But he didn’t appear to be a priority for the Tigers’ coaching staff.
Even now, Missouri is targeting plenty of prospects who are ranked higher than he is, including E.J. Liddell, Antavion Collum, Tray Jackson and Malik Hall. But Mosley said he has made three unofficial visits to MU this summer. During one of those visits, he watched the Tigers participate in a difficult workout that included weighted vests, so then he started working out with a weighted vest.
In addition to taking Martin up on his invitations to visit with the Missouri team, Mosley has gotten to know the Tigers by hanging out with Jontay Porter, another Columbia local and Mosley’s friend of about five years. Mosley said the two sometimes play in Mizzou Arena together.
Mosley has lived in Columbia since he was about 7 years old, and when he was a boy, he and some friends used to dream about playing for the Tigers.
“I never thought I’d be this good (though), so I wasn’t going there,” Mosley said. “But things change, so we’ll see where it goes.”
Something else that could change: Mosley’s relationship with the other schools that have offered him scholarships.
“Since I know I can text other schools, I’ll probably start texting them, too,” he said.
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