Instead, a black-and-gold best-case scenario has transpired.
After handling a bad Vanderbilt team in its first road test of the season, Mizzou football is 5-0 for the first time since 2013, ranked No. 21 nationally this week by The Associated Press and headed into a whopper of a game against No. 23 LSU that will be played in a sold-out Memorial Stadium.
Quarterback Brady Cook has squashed doubts and quieted critics while dropping deep dimes and setting the SEC record for pass attempts without a pick. Star receiver Luther Burden III looks like one of, if not the best receiver in the nation. If the Tigers can clean up some very preventable errors â such as not snapping the ball before the quarterback is ready â they can create something special this season, which is exactly the kind of season Drinkwitz needs to have before welcoming what looks like his most exciting recruiting class yet.
Drinkwitz already has a 2024 commitment from five-star defensive end Williams Nwaneri out of Leeâs Summit North High School. He continues to work for one from St. Louis University High receiver Ryan Wingo. If he lands it, and if Nwaneri stays true, that would mean Mizzou football secures the stateâs top two recruits in the same class for the first time since the college sports world started revolving around recruiting rankings.
And none of these developing feel-goods on the football front have stopped or even slowed the continuation of the Dennis Gates Basketball Revival. In fact itâs only helped. Thatâs what good, strong athletics departments do. They cross-populate revenue-sports success. Itâs happening at Mizzou.
Gates can be found on the sidelines of Faurot Field during football home games, whipping the student sections into a frenzy. The bigger fall Saturdays feel for the football team, the better atmosphere Gates can show his visiting basketball recruits, and his list of visitors continues to turn heads.
Those close to the hoops program continue to suggest that assuming Gatesâ team is going to take a step back in Year 2 should reconsider. The Tigers lost a lot of experience because of expiring eligibility, but they have increased their athleticism and length while perhaps lifting their talent ceiling. The nonconference schedule looks like a potential hint.
Last season, Gates mostly used his nonconference games, especially his early ones, to build on-court chemistry and confidence between his players, many of whom were transfer-up players who were not familiar with one another. You know how that worked out. The Tigers won 25 games, returned to the NCAA Tournament and won their first March Madness game since 2010.
But this season, Gates has packed his nonconference slate with games against Memphis, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and Seton Hall in addition to Kansas and Illinois. Gates says the uptick in degree of difficulty has to do with the program shifting out of the getting-settled stage. He notes that fans want to see these bigger games. Heâs right, but I think it also means a roster that is moving forward without Kobe Brown and DâMoi Hodge could be more potent than some have assumed.
Mizzou returns its top two ball handlers, Nick Honor and Sean East. Gates added some needed size thanks to the transfer portal addition of 7-foot-5 graduate transfer Connor Vanover, the offseason bulking up of returner Aidan Shaw and the arrival of 7-foot freshman Jordan Butler. The same coaching staff that helped Brown grow leaps and bounds in one offseason before his jump to the NBA will try to help Noah Carter make a big leap.
New transfers on the perimeter include John Tonje, Caleb Grill and Tamar Bates. All arrived with valuable experience from highly competitive basketball conferences (Mountain West, Big 12, Big Ten). And donât forget Trent Pierce. The 6-foot-10 freshman from Gatesâ top-25 2023 recruiting class has caused an offseason stir. Could he be the teamâs leading scorer?
Then there is Gatesâ tentative 2024 class, one that has the national recruiting circuit buzzing.
Annor Boateng, Peyton Marshall, Marcus Allen and Antonio Barrett gave the Tigers a nation-high four four-star commitments in their 2024 class as of Sunday morning. Scouting service Rivals ranked Mizzouâs 2024 class as the second-best in the country, trailing only North Carolina. Then came Sunday afternoon, when four-star, 7-foot-2 center Trent Burns made his commitment to MU. Five four-stars. One class. Unprecedented.
Four-star prospects make high-level college basketball run. Programs that get them and develop them tend to get ranked, tend to compete for top conference spots and tend to dance deep into March Madness. They also tend to put more players in the NBA, which means more recruits want to come to campus. Gates and his staff have done a stellar job picking the right players from the transfer portal. They have made encouraging selections from the junior college ranks. The rapid establishment of a critical preps pipeline now seems to be well underway.
Gates isnât done, either.
Heâs hard at work trying to land 2024 five-star center Jayden Quaintance, who recently visited campus to see how his 6-foot-9, 230-pound NBA-bound frame could fit into the Tigersâ plans if he decides to go the college route instead of jumping straight into the NBAâs G League.
Combine the football teamâs hot start with the basketball teamâs rapid rise, sprinkle in the Tigers beginning to show their teeth in the name, image and likeness realm, and what you have is a revenue-sport synergy Mizzou has lacked for a long time.
The challenge now? Keep it rolling.
