Another big Monday for Mizzou basketball recruiting looms with E.J. Liddell’s decision
What a week.
A commitment on Monday to kick things off and now we go into next week with another big domino about to drop.
Let’s go.
Liddell committing Monday
Missouri men’s basketball picked up its first commitment of the 2019 class on Monday when 6-foot-2 point guard Mario McKinney of Vashon High in St. Louis announced he’s taking his talents two hours west on Interstate 70. McKinney’s commitment is a surprise to no one and and a good all-around addition to Cuonzo Martin’s team.
Now that McKinney’s on board, all eyes turn to E.J. Liddell, a 6-7 forward from Belleville (Ill.) West, who is expected to announce on Monday. I’ve spent a large part of the week trying to get intel and I’ve come to this conclusion: I have no idea where he is going.
I’ve heard from trusted sources that he’s going to Missouri, Ohio State and Illinois, all of his final three schools. Props to the family for keeping this air tight.
Out of the three schools, I do feel the momentum favors Ohio State and Missouri. Watch, Illinois Twitter is now going to come after me.
I think Missouri and Illinois have similar arguments for Liddell. Neither has a player on its roster like him and playing time for Liddell would be immediate.
Both schools would play up the “staying home” angle but Liddell would be the centerpiece of a Missouri team that adds transfers Mark Smith and Dru Smith next season, giving Martin his most talented team since taking the Tigers job.
It’s impressive that Ohio State has been able to stay in the mix despite having an in-state player at Liddell’s position in Alonzo Gaffney and a highly-touted point guard in D.J. Carton already on board. Liddell would give the Buckeyes a top-15 class at minimum but he would have to work his way into playing time.
So does McKinney help Mizzou’s chances? I definitely think it does. But Liddell is committing only a week after his best friend, so it’s not like he had a lot of time to sway him. I think Liddell went into this week knowing where his mind was at.
I don’t like coming up with percentages, so I’ll simply say that a commitment to Ohio State or Missouri wouldn’t surprise me. A commitment to Illinois would.
Tigers watch Hugley, Christopher
Cornell Mann and Chris Hollender were on the road this week, (I’m sure Michael Porter Sr. was too, just don’t know where) to see 2020 prospects John Hugley and Josh Christopher.
Hugley, a four-star recruit out of Ohio, is a 6-8 power forward who reminds me of Liddell when it comes to style of play and frame. He’s taking an unofficial visit to Penn State.
While Mann has deep ties to Detroit, the area of his youth, he also has connections in Ohio. He played at Akron and coached at Dayton for a few seasons. He was the man behind landing Christian Guess. Don’t be surprised to see more Ohio targets popping up.
As for Christopher, I think we all know the deal here. His cousin is Nicodemus Christopher, the Tigers’ strength coach, and he’s repeatedly said that Missouri is the only school he currently wants to visit. Personally, I had a better first impression of Christopher than I did Michael Porter Jr. when I first saw them play.
Porter Jr. was a tall lanky underclassman tearing apart undersized Missouri Class 3 teams when I first watched him as a freshman, while Christopher was picking apart the best of the Nike EYBL as a rising sophomore. He’s that good.
As basketball season approaches, I plan to try and touch base with Christopher to see when he could possibly visit, but his high school schedule could be a problem with that.
The only thing that surprises me about Christopher’s recruitment is that Pittsburgh is not as involved. Nicodemus’ brother Garry is the Panthers strength coach and we all know that Jeff Capel can recruit. I plan to look more into that.
I know that Josh regularly visited Nicodemus when he was with Martin at California. Someone close to the family recently told me that this summer was the first one in some time that Josh and Nicodemus didn’t hang out. Maybe Josh is closer to Nicodemus than he is Garry but at the end of the day it’s all family. Pitt is definitely a school to keep an eye on.
Alex Schiffer
Alex Schiffer covers University of Missouri athletics for The Star.
This story was originally published September 28, 2018 at 12:27 PM.