Once Yaya Keita committed to Missouri in early September, a three-week dash to fill an extra-large recruiting class came to an end.
The Tigers weren’t alone, either.
Plenty of other staffs found themselves scrambling as the coronavirus pandemic nuked the traditional recruiting calendar. It nixed sneaker-backed grassroots circuits, ushered in a never-ending dead period and forced many prospects to consider the offers they had in hand. Expanding a recruiting board meant squinting to read numbers on jerseys over glitchy livestreams.
Ebb and flow. That was recruiting for the Class of 2021, a cycle in which Cuonzo Martin needed to fill six vacancies and gird a roster for a healthy amount of churn.