Recruiting: 2026 is an actual year with players Mizzou is recruiting! (2024)

Hello from the future! It’s the year 2024 and I’m blogging from my space pod that runs on any assortment of trash including a half empty can of Miller High Life and an old banana peel. If you understand that reference you are probably like me: older than you realize.

Back to the Future took place in 1985 and they travel back to the year 1955. That’s akin to the movie taking place now and Marty McFly going all the way back to 1994. The year of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the year of Sabotage, of Definitely Maybe and Creep. The Lion King and Forrest Gump topped the box office. That same year is the Enchantment Under the Sea dance for this generation.

The same generation we’re NOW going to get back to talking about! Sorry for the detour, but it’s hard to believe that 2026 recruits are next up.

For the full list of offers and interest from the Mizzou Staff, head over to RockM+ as Matthew Harris and Matt Watkins have been covering it in more depth than I’ll go into here. But with the lines officially open between coaching staffs and 2026 recruits, let’s get a primer for what is taking shape in the very early stages.

Missouri has already offered 23 players for the 2026 class. One of the guys Missouri has been recruiting the longest is 5-star Arkansas wing JJ Andrews. So it would make sense that he was one of the first calls:

Andrews is the son of a former Arkansas Football player, and currently the number 20 player in the 2026 class. He’s a physical and athletic wing, and with John Calipari sitting in charge in Fayetteville these days things got a little more difficult for Dennis Gates and his staff to extract another product from the Natural State. However, Mizzou has had a nearly two year head start in recruiting Andrews. And having a Little Rock product on the roster (Annor Boateng) certainly doesn’t hurt.

There are two names at John Burroughs High School in St. Louis, Missouri worth keeping track of. Sheek Pearson is one, and Tristan Reed is the other. Reed is the brother of new UConn Husky Tarris Reed. Missouri has been recruiting both Reed and Pearson for more than a year. Neither have a 247sports composite ranking as of yet, but I would bet they both do before long. Bother are tall and mobile bigs with high ceilings.

Another Arkansas product, Mizzou has already had Aidan Chronister on campus for an unofficial visit. That’s the good news! At 6’7, Chronister is a ranging volume shooting wing who should be very popular as a top 50 prospect.

I’m really only including Aliou Dioum because of a fascinating side story (for me at least). If Mizzou was contacting him yesterday, they have interest. However the 6’10 prospect out of Colorado was offered by the Tigers back in mid-May. And while getting a scholarship offer isn’t what’s odd, what was odd was receiving an email from a PR firm asking if I’d like to write about the offer. It’s the first time that’s ever happened in as long as I’ve had my RMN email public. I’ve received all sorts of interesting (and mostly not interesting) offers from PR reps asking me to cover whatever they’re offering. But I’ve never been contacted to talk about a scholarship offer.

Most top level athletes receive all kinds of offers, so we rarely publish articles on it. And if we do it’s usually in a piece like this where we very briefly tell you who the player is, then tell you about 5-10 others. Maybe Dioum becomes a Tiger. There’s certainly interest, but I’d be surprised.

I’d be surprised for Dioum becoming a Tigers because there are several good local prospects who can bring interior size and rim protection. On top of Sheek Pearson and Tristan Reed, there’s Shawnee Mission (Northwest) product Ethan Taylor. A 7’0 top 100 level player who suits up for Mokan Elite, It’s still early for Taylor, as he hasn’t quite been flooded with offers yet. But he will be, and probably soon. The programs to reach out will expand and quickly. Along with Pearson and Reed, I’m keeping an eye on Taylor.

That’s the abbreviated list, for the full list of offers and contact, login (or subscribe!) to RockM+ and check out the awesome work the Matts have been doing with the hoops recruiting.