Vashon High School (St. Louis, MO) senior guard Mario McKinney is the first verbal commitment received by Missouri basketball coach Cuonzo Martin for the Class of 2019, announcing his pledge to his home-state university via social media on Monday night. McKinney, the younger cousin of former Missouri guard Jimmy McKinney (2002-2006), is the fifth St. Louis area product to pick Missouri since Coach Martin arrived at the job in the spring of 2017.
As a junior at Vashon, McKinney averaged 17 points per game. Rivals.com ranks him as a four-star prospect and #30 in the nation’s point guard list. The website 247Sports.com ranks McKinney as a three-star and the nation’s #23 combo guard. He chose Mizzou over Auburn, Iowa State, Kansas State, Louisville, Oklahoma State, and VCU.
Missouri remains in the running for another St. Louis area senior, four-star forward E.J. Liddell of Belleville West High School, who recently visited, with McKinney, the MU campus in Columbia, and is down to the Tigers, Illinois, and Ohio State in his final three, although various reports from around the region indicate that Liddell could be leaning toward the Buckeyes in the final stages of the decision process.
Photo credit – Randy Kemp / St. Louis Post-Dispatch / St. Louis, MO
