This week in Mizzou recruiting: Josh Christopher, Caleb Love, John Hugley IV and more

Happy Friday. This is my last week of freedom (sort of), as Missouri opens football camp a week from today. We enter our second week of list cut season in the recruiting column, so lets get to it.

Josh Christopher cuts to five

Josh Christopher became the second of MU’s three priority basketball recruits to cut his list to five, joining Cam’Ron Fletcher, who did the same thing a week ago. Arizona State, UCLA, Michigan, Kentucky and Missouri remain for Christopher’s services. Here’s a brief breakdown of each finalist:

Arizona State: Play with your older brother Caleb for a program on the rise.

UCLA: Play with your best friend Shareef O’Neal and be the guy that returns your hometown school to prominence.

Michigan: Play for NBA champion Juwan Howard and be the sparkplug for a new era of Michigan basketball.

Kentucky: Speaks for itself.

Missouri: Play for your cousin Nicodemus, for a program on the rise.

ASU and Missouri are essentially the same sales pitch, with the distance being the biggest difference. I expect Christopher to take another round of visits before picking a school. I think it’s interesting that he has three schools in the Midwest on his list, which shows he might be more open to playing away from home than previously thought. If he plays out of the Pac-12, my money is on Missouri. Too early to tell with things, but MU has known of him long before Michigan and Kentucky. UCLA has been on him for some time, but just changed coaching staffs.

Nicodemus Christopher has been active with his cousin on social media a lot this summer, both as a salesman and simply a relative. I give him credit, it can’t be the easiest situation at times and I think he’s balanced it well.

A final note on Christopher: I’m surprised Pitt never really threw its hat into the race. Jeff Capel is one of the nation’s best recruiters and Christopher’s cousin Gerry is the strength coach there. With Christopher’s list seeming to indicate he’s more open to heading east, I wondered if the Panthers would enter the race. I guess not.

Caleb Love list cut imminent

Of MU’s top three targets, Caleb Love is the only one who hasn’t cut his list yet. All reports indicate that’s coming on Friday. We’ll update the column if that happens.

I did some digging on Thursday night and it appears North Carolina will be on his final list. Gauging the others is tough. I’d guess Missouri is on it, same with Indiana and Louisville, but those are just educated guesses. Love’s camp has been quiet for a few weeks now so I’m not totally sure what to expect. Let’s see what the list looks like and go from there.

John Hugley cuts to 12

Ohio center John Hugley announced his final 12 schools earlier this week and MU made the cut. To be honest, just like I did with Adam Miller, there’s only so much to gauge off a top-12 so we won’t spend much time here. I’d guess that Hugley will cut it again before taking visits, but I could be wrong.

He told me back in April at the Nike EYBL session in Indy that he planned to visit MU in the near future. I know Pitt has been a factor in his recruitment for some time.

Night at the Zou

Missouri football’s biggest recruiting event is this Saturday at Faurot Field. Compared to past years, it doesn’t have the buzz that it used to. As the early signing period continues to move recruits’ calendars, NATZ becomes less and less the kickoff for MU’s current class. Usually MU would go into NATZ with a handful of commitments and then see that number double in the days following the event. But with MU already sitting at 13 commitments for the 2020 class, the Tigers are already getting picky with who they take at certain positions.

Trinity Catholic wideout James Frenchie will be in attendance among others, and it will be interesting to see who pulls the trigger this weekend or early next week after the event. MU commit Jay Maclin will also be in attendance. Food for thought: With the way the recruiting calendar is going, will there even be a Night at the Zou five years from now, as players continue to commit earlier and earlier?

This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 11:52 AM.