This week in Mizzou recruiting: Jalen Johnson, Danielson Ike, Kevon Billingsley

Greetings from a Starbucks in College Station, Texas. The column is delayed a day this week because I was traveling all day Friday to get here.

But enough of my excuses, let’s talk recruiting.

A conversation with Jalen Johnson’s high school coach

Missouri watched 2020 five-star recruit Jalen Johnson recently, when the 6-foot-8 forward’s high school, Nicolet, played Chaminade in a St. Louis tournament.

Johnson is a top-five player nationally in the 2020 class and is currently rated higher than MU targets Josh Christopher, Caleb Love and Cam’Ron Fletcher.

Considered a wing, Johnson has every program in the country after him because of the way he fits into the modern game. Johnson plays in a positionless system at Nicolet in Wisconsin, which spaces shooters all over the floor.

Allan Hanson, Johnson’s coach at Nicolet, said Johnson is currently averaging around 21 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists per game.

“I want him to take command and dominate every game,” Hanson told The Star. “He puts his teammates first all the time. I’d like to see him play with more of an edge.”

Johnson has currently taken official visits to UCLA, Arizona and Duke but has shut down his recruitment for the time being to focus on his high school season. The visit to UCLA happened in the fall before the Bruins fired Steve Alford. Hanson doesn’t know when his star player will start making visits again.

Because of the system he plays in and his all-around play, Hanson said it’s tough to project where Johnson best fits in the college game.

“You can’t put a smaller guy on him because he’s good at posting up,” he said. “If you put a bigger guy on him on the wing because he can get to the rim.”

Hanson said Missouri’s contact with Johnson has been a bit inconsistent. The Tigers reach out about Johnson, but not as often as some of the other schools, which makes sense given that Johnson isn’t a local recruit with ties to the program.

But Hanson said that Johnson’s camp is well aware of the Tigers and what the program brings to the table, including Cuonzo Martin’s track record of putting players into the NBA.

“Cuonzo has done a great job everywhere he’s went,” Hanson said.

Hanson played for Bruce Pearl at Auburn, which makes Pearl’s Tigers a program to watch out for in Johnson’s recruitment.

Kevon Billingsley cuts to 12

Kevon Billingsley, a consensus four-star defensive lineman from Lutheran North in St. Louis, cut his list down to a dozen on Friday and Missouri made the cut. Along with the Tigers, Michigan, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Arkansas are some of the schools MU has to go against for his services.

We’ve talked about Billingsley a bit here and it’s no surprise Missouri made a cut this big — or some of the other schools he included. He’s got the frame and length that coaches love at that position, standing tall at 6-foot-5.

I think it’s the next pare-down from Billingsley, where I assume he’ll cut his list to around six or eight, where it will really get interesting. There’s only so much to say when you’re one of 12 finalists. Billingsley’s coach, Carl Reed, knows what he’s doing when it comes to recruiting and he’s one of the local coaches that you see at Missouri’s practices because he coached linebacker Ronnell Perkins. So that can’t hurt the Tigers’ chances. MU defensive lineman Brick Haley was very highly thought of at Lutheran North during Ronnie Perkins’ recruitment, and that shouldn’t hurt either.

A Josh Christopher nugget

I’m told Missouri will be in to watch Christopher, the 2020 five-star guard whose cousin Nicodemus has worked with Martin since 2012 and serves as the Tigers’ basketball strength coach., sometime in the next two weeks. The Tigers have already watched him recently, but appear to be making a few more trips out west before the end of the season. It’s tough for Missouri to regularly watch Christopher play, given how far away he is and the fact that the Tigers’ schedule doesn’t really take them that far west. Now that I think of it, College Station is as far west as Missouri goes in SEC play.

Myron Gardner update

Myron Gardner, a 6-foot-6 wing at Spire Academy, was the Tigers’ latest 2019 basketball offer last week. My text to his coach went unanswered. I’m told by others that Gardner doesn’t really do interviews, so information might be scarce for a bit. I think it becomes more of a focus if/when he takes a visit to campus.

Danielson Ike visiting Missouri

Danielson Ike, the star offensive lineman from Rockhurst, is on an official visit to Missouri this weekend, per reports.

The 6-foot-6 tackle has also visited Indiana and Oklahoma, among others. Michigan is another school that’s been linked to Ike, but I’m told the Wolverines are not a threat to MU the way Oklahoma is. Missouri only has a handful of spots left in its 2019 class and all of them will essentially be for offensive and defensive linemen.

I’ll try to get more on where things stand after the visit ends.

This story was originally published January 19, 2019 at 11:56 AM.