(Photo by Joshua Gunter/Northeast Ohio Media Group)
Kim Anderson landed his second commitment in the past four days when Garfield Heights senior Willie Jackson pledged to the basketball program on Wednesday.
The 6-foot-6 wing from Cleveland chose the Tigers over scholarship offers from Boston College, Penn State, Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Wisconsin and several more. Jackson joins Van Buren, Ark. big man Mitchell Smith in the 2016 class.
Jackson is a very versatile prospect that could potentially see time right away. He was forced to play out of position at power forward for his high school due to a lack of total size on the team, but he naturally fits right in on the perimeter.
The Tigers are building a nice nucleus in the backcourt for the future. In the last class alone, they added a floor general in Terrence Phillips, and two shooters in Cullen VanLeer and K.J. Walton. Jackson looks to fit in nicely as an attacking wing man.
As of right now, it’s projected that sophomores D’Angelo Allen and Jakeenan Gant will split time at that position. Those two seem better suited for the power forward position and may only be playing on the perimeter out of necessity. If Jackson comes to campus in 2016 and impresses, he may force Anderson’s hand to slide one or both of them to power forward.
With the commitments from Jackson and Smith the Tigers are at the scholarship limit for the 2016-17 season. Anderson and his staff however are still recruiting national, top 50 targets, highlighted by Edrice “Bam” Adebayo.
If Adebayo were to commit to the Tigers, Anderson would find a way to make it work to get him to campus.
If this class stands pat at two, just by looking at recruiting rankings one would say this is a down year in terms of talent coming to the program. Both Jackson and Smith are unranked prospects, but in two to three years down the line they could develop into really solid players.
Kim Anderson hasn’t landed a big fish yet on the recruiting trail and he may never will. All he can do now is work with the talent in-house and keep them there. He’s landed a lot of talented players, now he just needs to develop them and turn the Missouri program around.
