Mizzou basketball lands a top-20 recruit. He’s from Columbia ... and staying home
The Tigers didn’t need to travel far to land a budding star.
Aaron Rowe, a consensus four-star point guard in the class of 2025, committed to Mizzou men’s basketball during a live ceremony Tuesday afternoon at Tolton High School. The Columbia product is the first pledge in MU coach Dennis Gates’ 2025 class.
The major recruiting services each rank Rowe among the top 25 prospects in his class. Rivals and On3 both tab Rowe as the No. 25 player in the nation, while 247Sports rates him as the No. 20 prospect nationally.
ESPN ranks him No. 19 overall.
The Tigers, naturally, had to fight off some stern competition for his verbal commitment.
Kansas State and Tennessee were the other contenders for Rowe, who had narrowed his list of potential schools down to three.
Rowe recently returned to Tolton after spending a season at Link Academy. He started for the Trailblazers as a freshman during the 2021-22 campaign, when they made a Class 4 state championship appearance.
The Columbia product then transferred to the Branson-based school, where he won a 2023 national high school championship.
Rowe transferred back to Tolton this offseason. The Trailblazers anticipate Rowe will be able to begin playing for the team again by Jan. 10.
Mizzou is set to lose point guards Nick Honor and Sean East II, as both players are in their final year of eligibility. True freshman Anthony Robinson II has been seeing significant minutes for Missouri (7-3) through the opening 10 games of the season.
Gates and his staff have already put together one of the best classes in program history.
The Tigers have secured signatures from five players in the class of 2024, all of whom rank among the top 100 prospects in the nation. Included in that group: four-star point guard T.O. Barrett, who also attended Link Academy.
The 2025 cycle is off to a similar start.
The 247Sports Composite rankings rate Rowe as the No. 4 point guard in his class. He trails only five-star combo guard Jasper Johnson, another Link product who visited MU in November, for the top spot in the state.
As an in-state athlete committed to a Missouri institution, Rowe can profit off his name, image and likeness once he signs any form of written agreement. The Missouri legislature passed a bill — House Bill 417 — that does not require athletes to have signed their national letter of intent before inking NIL deals and allows coaches to facilitate third-party deals.
It’s not the first time the Tigers have landed a top-rated recruit who was once a Trailblazer: Michael Porter Jr., a reigning NBA champion with the Denver Nuggets whose Missouri career was marred by injuries, played for Tolton before transferring to Nathan Hale High in Seattle. His younger brother, Jontay Porter, went the same route. They committed to MU in 2017.
Next in line: Aaron Rowe.