The Missouri Tiger football program picked up a verbal commitment from Rutgers University offensive lineman Michael Maietti over the weekend, with the three-year starter from the Scarlet Knights expected to replace Missouri’s own three-year starter, Trystan Colon-Castillo, who left the Tiger program one year early for the NFL draft.
Maietti, as a grad transfer, will be immediately eligible to play at Missouri. He is a product of Don Bosco Prep in West Orange, New Jersey, right in Rutgers backyard.
The Mizzou football program received some not-so-good off-the-field news on Sunday, with senior defensive lineman Antar Thompson arrested for operating a motor vehicle in a careless and imprudent manner and resisting arrest. He was booked into the Boone County Jail on Sunday afternoon, with the incidents in question occurring on Friday night. Bond was set at $2,000. Per athletic department policy, Thompson is suspended indefinitely.
While the Tiger gridiron program announced the addition of Maietti, the MU women’s basketball program announced the addition of Auburn University freshman guard Lauren Hansen as a transfer. In her one season at Auburn, Hansen, a native of Long Island, New York, averaged 7.9 points per game, including 20 starts. She is expected to have to sit out the 2020-2021 season at MU, per NCAA transfer rules.
Late last week, the Missouri women added Spanish point guard Mama Dembele to the roster, in addition to Jefferson City High School junior Sarah Linthacum, who will join big sister Micah at MU. Micah Linthacum redshirted her freshman season for the Tigers in 2019-2020. Sarah Linthacum helped Jeff City’s Lady Jays to a 22-4 record this past season.
While it was a productive week of recruiting for women’s coach Robin Pingeton, it was a disappointing one for men’s coach Cuonzo Martin, as the Tigers missed on three highly-coveted prospects in the past week.
On Thursday morning, University of Michigan freshman guard David DeJulius announced his transfer destination of Cincinnati, spurning Missouri, Marquette, and Iowa State. A former four-star recruit, DeJulius averaged 7 points per game in his one season in Ann Arbor for coach Juwan Howard.
On Monday, Bowling Green senior Justin Turner announced he would return for one more season with the Falcons, deciding against a graduate transfer to Missouri. Turner, considered one of the top prospects in the transfer portal, averaged 18 points per game for Bowling Green in his junior season.
Later on Monday, Joshua Christopher, the #10 overall recruit in the country (per 247 Sports), chose Arizona State and coach Bobby Hurley for his collegiate home.
The only prep recruit committed to Mizzou in the Class of 2020 is 7’3″ three-star center Jordan Wilmore. The Tigers are anchored at the bottom of the SEC recruiting rankings by 247 Sports, as the only school in the conference with just one commitment in the class.
