Mizzou Basketball Serves Notice To Rest Of The Country

What a whirlwind few weeks its been for Mizzou Basketball.  In early March, Mizzou put former coach Kim Anderson and his 3 year record of 27-68 out to pasture.  A year too late for my liking but at least it finally happened.  Not to worry, though.  New AD Jim Sterk put his stamp on the program a week later by luring Cal coach Cuonzo Martin back to his roots. Now it's Martin's turn to put his stamp on the program.  He started big.  Shortly after Martin arrived, he announced the hiring of former Washington Husky/Mizzou WBB assistant, Michael Porter, Sr.  Normally, assistant coaching hires don't move the needle.  They do, however, if said former assistant is the father of the consensus No. 1 player in the 2017 recruiting class.  It only took a few more days before MP, Jr. decommitted from Washington and announced his arrival as the most highly anticipated Mizzou commit since Anthony Peeler in 1988.  [It didn't hurt that the Porter family used to call Columbia home and MP, Jr.s sisters are on the Mizzou Women's team, a team MP, Sr. was previously an assistant coach for.]  Fast forward a couple more weeks and now there's talk of Mizzou's class ranking in the top 5 (maybe even No. 2) nationally because of some overtime work by Porter, Jr.  Let that sink in for a minute my fellow Mizzou fans. 

According to the reports, Porter, Jr. has made it clear that he wants to bring some of his highly talented buddies with him to Mizzou.  All of a sudden highly touted players like 5 Star SF Kevin Knox (ESPN No. 7, 247 Sports No. 8), 4 star PG Blake Harris (ESPN Top 100), and 4 star PG Mark Smith (247 Sports Top 100) all have been linked to Mizzou.  If that weren't enough, 4 star C Jeremiah Tilmon (247 Sports No. 29 overall/No. 1 Illinois) decommitted from Illinois and all signs point to him heading west to Columbia.  And let's not forget the previous jewel of the class C. J. Roberts (3 star PG from Richland, TX).  Needless to say, it's been a few weeks of heightened emotions on the Tiger train.  While nothing is official until they sign on the dotted line, Mizzou basketball hasn't given its fans this much to cheer about since the 1993-94 team went 14-0 in Big Eight Conference play.  Bring on Kentucky!!!!