Mizzou basketball didn’t expect its offseason to become an immensely stressful one. So when unexpected losses caused its next recruiting hunt to intensify, the program needed an answer — at one position in particular.
Monday night, it might have gotten that answer.
Three-star 2018 point guard Xavier Pinson of Simeon High School in Chicago committed to Missouri on Monday night. He chose the Tigers over Wisconsin and Georgetown, after also cutting Memphis and Dayton from contention.
Pinson joins a 2018 recruiting class for Mizzou that includes Whitfield School star guard Torrence Watson, Illinois ex-commit and Belleville East scoring threat Javon Pickett and former UIC player K.J. Santos.
This one might come as the biggest relief yet for the Tigers. Missouri was marveled by the college basketball world at the beginning of the season for having a good problem in the backcourt: depth. That depth began to recede after the 2017-18 campaign began, starting with the transfer announcement of freshman C.J. Roberts.
Frequent starter Blake Harris soon followed, shockingly leaving Mizzou and a role that appeared would be his for four years to move closer to home to North Carolina State. After the indefinite suspension of and Title IX investigation commencement against junior Terrence Phillips last month, all that was left to carry the majority of the load at point guard was junior Jordan Geist, with help from graduate transfer Kassius Robertson and junior Cullen VanLeer.
Pinson’s commitment, while reassuring for Missouri’s future at the position, also could prove a deterrent for undecided Webster Groves High School point guard Courtney Ramey, who still includes Mizzou in his final cut of teams even after turning away from blue-blooded Villanova. Ramey has been called a four- and five-star recruit by different scales, and he is the second-highest-rated undecided point guard in the country right now.
Pinson won’t be eligible to sign an official letter of intent until the next available basketball signing period on April 11.
_Edited by Joe Noser | jnoser@themaneater.com_