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Recruiting - 2021


Pistol

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3 hours ago, TheChosenOne said:

Right, such an odd time for recruiting. Within the article he acknowledged the possibility of that not being possible which could make things more fluid. I just listened to Frank's show from today and he said that he expects him to commit to Mizzou in the near future, so who knows.

Frank also said he was texting with Corey Tate asking him when he is going to close Jordan Nesbitt and sent him a coffee's for closers meme. Said Tate responded that he is trying to get that locked up. I doubt many local media folks are texting coaches things of that nature, so for now on I am going to take anything Frank says as essentially coming directly from the coaching staff. Good to have one guy on our side!

I thought coaches weren’t allowed to comment on specific players until they are signed.

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55 minutes ago, SLURadioBoy said:

Now the Illinois message board is claiming they’re in the driver’s seat for Nesbitt.

@SLURadioBoy I know you’re just relaying the message, I saw it earlier today too, so not attacking you, but a lot of people say a lot of things on their message boards. Including saying every recruit that doesn’t choose Illinois is either being influenced by their high school coaches/AAU coaches/parents/handlers or being paid. I put zero stock in the Illini message board. None of the crystal balls have changed. Nothing matters until he commits. Until then, it’s all speculation. Remember when Okoro posted a pic of himself in an Illinois State jersey, then committed to SLU later that day? I don’t think anybody really knows what’s gonna happen. Hopefully we’ll know either way soon.

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21 minutes ago, Reinert310 said:

Interesting. Good for Keita. If he’s happy, great. The tiger board probably just f-ing EXPLODED.

So, from some on the board in the know, who is the better prospect, Keita or Sekou Gassama?  I read some old posts from 2018 and Pistol (I think) at that time seemed to think Sekou Gassama was better or had the higher ceiling.   But rankings now seem to point to Keita as higher rated.  Comments?

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1 minute ago, johnbj14 said:

Going to maintain the faith. Putting stock in message board rumors doesn’t usually end well. Until the crystal balls start to change or he commits, we can only assume SLU is in the conversation, and that the staff is working hard to close the deal. 

Right, with the number of crystal ball picks for SLU we certainly appear to be in the driver’s seat. I won’t start to worry until we see some picks for another program or the SLU predictions being changed. It would certainly be nice for Nesbitt to just go ahead and commit to the good guys though!

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20 minutes ago, WVBilliken said:

So, from some on the board in the know, who is the better prospect, Keita or Sekou Gassama?  I read some old posts from 2018 and Pistol (I think) at that time seemed to think Sekou Gassama was better or had the higher ceiling.   But rankings now seem to point to Keita as higher rated.  Comments?

Keita is stronger and a little bit faster.  They are both raw offensively.  They are both good post defenders.  Keita is a better rebounder.  Gassama is the better shotblocker.    Gassama got a late start on the high school season due to injury and Keita was already established as the starter by that time.  Most of the difference in ranking is due to that.

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11 hours ago, WVBilliken said:

So, from some on the board in the know, who is the better prospect, Keita or Sekou Gassama?  I read some old posts from 2018 and Pistol (I think) at that time seemed to think Sekou Gassama was better or had the higher ceiling.   But rankings now seem to point to Keita as higher rated.  Comments?

Keita has been more advanced physically, and defensively as a rebounder and shot blocker to this point. Gassama waa slowed w/an injury last season but has been healthy this summer, and has more variety to his offensive game and soft hands. Both have worked very hard to catch up and get to this level. They are very close. Gassama keeps adding to his game, for example, a mid range jumper here:

 

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8 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-I read the article on STLToday to see who they list as his other offers, the writer hates SLU but lists us first along with the Iowa schools and WVU, what a dweeb 

I liked how in the article of the kid who committed before him, he had to list schools that were "interested" in him because his offer list was so bad.  Reminds me of recruits we would get during the Crews years.  

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Mizzou needed a big and Keita appeared to be a priority, if not the priority, for that position. This leaves them with 1 scholarship left on paper, although the expectation is that a few guys are going to leave in the spring.

Given that Mizzou has quickly filled a large class, we will probably see them less head-to-head for remaining 2021 recruits. The only common offer between the two schools is Shane Dezonie, and it appears Mizzou has prioritized him and SLU hasn't. Mizzou is interested in Kern and Lee but hasn't offered them and was never really in the mix for Nesbitt. So maybe we could see things heat up for Kern in the spring, but otherwise we can mostly ignore them for this class.

I expect to see them head-to-head more with SLU in 2022, though. Mutual interest in a lot of local kids, although Reed is the only one with an offer from both (Avery Brown also has an offer from both but I don't think either will be a factor with him).

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13 hours ago, WVBilliken said:

So, from some on the board in the know, who is the better prospect, Keita or Sekou Gassama?  I read some old posts from 2018 and Pistol (I think) at that time seemed to think Sekou Gassama was better or had the higher ceiling.   But rankings now seem to point to Keita as higher rated.  Comments?

I think both @3star_recruit and @courtside basically covered it. Keita was healthy all junior season, Gassama wasn't. Both of them look better with Gateway than with De Smet because as 3star and others have covered before, De Smet just doesn't do much to get them involved offensively. Keita looks like the better overall athlete right now, he's faster, looks like a better leaper, and has put together a few more eye opening highlights.

Gassama is longer and a better shot blocker; he also runs the floor well but isn't as fast as Keita. He seems to have developed a nice little mid-range shot and has mostly been an at-the-basket scorer. He gives you some positional versatility and can guard the 4 or 5. He appears to be in great physical shape from recent Tweets this spring/summer. Can always add a little to his big frame but he's in a great spot for a rising HS senior. I would want to see him be a more aggressive rebounder this season and keep adding to his offensive skill set. He's going to be a bit limited if De Smet still doesn't do much to get him and Keita touches - he seems like he could have potential as an excellent high- or low-post passer, for example. I can't decide if it's good or bad we didn't see much of him in the past HS or AAU season because of injury and cancellations - not as many schools got involved as would have, but we also just haven't seen as much of what he can do.

I like where SLU stands with him, from what I can tell. He seemed like he attended about half of our home games last season and appeared to know everyone in the few rows behind the bench when I was there and got to observe which recruits were in the house. Keita was not at nearly as many games. Projecting our frontcourt out a couple years, he would slot in nicely. We don't need him to be an instant impact player and his long-term potential is absolutely there. He hasn't said much about timing, lists, or any of that. My impression is that he's comfortable with SLU but probably waiting to see how strong his other options are before making a decision. Ideally we would just get a commitment without the fuss of a whittling-down process.

If we are able to secure Nesbitt and then Gassama and either Blackmon or Kern, that would be an excellent 3-man class.

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29 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

I can't wait for the first Mizzou recruit to use the Columbia skyline versus the St Louis skyline...

1200px-Columbia-mo-skyline.jpg

The biggest satellite dish in all of Boone County!

Wait, I thought we were talking Columbia. Why did you post this picture of Paris? GORGEOUS!

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