SEC: Montaque Gill-Caesar To Lead Missouri
Recently I have found myself saying “Thank God for Canadian hoops & one time for Steve Nash.” Canadians are quietly taking over the game of basketball in the NBA and in college because of the awesome athletes that are coming through their pipeline.
We already know about the usual suspects, Andrew Wiggins, Tristan Thompson, Tyler Ennis, Nik Stauskas and Anthony Bennett, but now we have another name to add to the list.
That would be the sensational shooting guard Montaque Gill-Caesar. This year, Gill-Caesar brings his talents into the Southeastern Conference and is going to play for the Missouri Tigers.
With Gill-Caesar’s arrival in Columbia, coach Frank Haith has landed one of the best recruits in the last decade or so, getting this amazing athlete, Gill-Caesar, to play for his Tigers.
“I just landed in Rome, All hail Caesar’s home.”
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When Gill-Caesar decided to reclassify from the 2015 high school class to the 2014 class, he
made a decision
to give Missouri one of their most exciting players in years.
Gill-Caesar by far is one of the most athletic prospects I’ve seen and shows a lot of potential similiar to his teammate and the former Baylor transfer, shooting guard Deuce Bello. As excited as I was to watch Bello play for coach Scott Drew at Baylor in his fast paced offense and tear up the Big 12 tear, Gill-Caesar brings a lot more excitement.
His arrival to the Missouri program makes them a scary good team and one of the sleeper picks in the Southeastern Conference. Currently the Tigers have the No. 7 ranking within the first 2014 SEC polls.
SEC Media poll: 1. UK; 2. UF; 3. Ark; 4. LSU; 5. GA; 6. Ole Miss; 7. Mizz; 8. Aub; 9. A&M; 10. Ala; 11. Vandy; 12. SC; 13. Tenn; 14. Miss St
— Andy Katz (@TheAndyKatz) October 22, 2014
The Tigers are going to have a great team this season and for a team who last season had a wonderful record of 23-12 last year they were underrated within the scope of the NCAA realm. Then again, with the 2014 rankings, it seems that once again these Tigers are getting vastly underrated.
This roster boasts the weapons (Jonathan Williams, Jakeenan Gant) to compete with the elite basketball programs atop of the SEC. In addition, this team is very young and the roster only has three seniors and one junior. The inexperience is there, but as it’s been said, “Youth is blind.”
Having Gill-Caesar on the roster as the leader of the youth movement for the Tigers will only help if Haith can break through to his prized prospect.
With all of the young legs on the roster, this season playing inside of the Missou arena fans should see about 20 alley oops a game, about 10 fast break dunks and don’t forget about seven tip backs.
In all seriousness, Gill-Caesar will most likely not have a And 1 mixtape highlight game every time he steps on the court, but he does have the potential to make fans jump out of their seat and scream for joy whenever he takes off jumping flying in the air.
The crowd is going to love watching him play, as much as America will enjoy seeing his game flourish playing for Coach Haith.
The impact of Coach Haith landing Gill-Caesar as his prized recruit is priceless and couldn’t come at a better time. Last season the Tigers lost one of (if not) their best player on the perimeter, Jordan Clarkson to the 2014 NBA Draft.
Now that Clarkson is handling the duties on the wing for the Lakers (or most likely sitting the bench), Gill-Caesar is going to have the responsibility of scoring buckets on the perimeter. What freshman wouldn’t want that responsibility?
Thanks to Haith, Gill-Caesar will expand his game and become more than a just a dunker, or more than just an athlete. Haith has a knack for developing guards because he forces them to learn more than one style of play.
Haith has to challenge Gill-Caesar to use his athleticism defensively to become a willing and elite defender. This will pay off because of the guards within the SEC are gruesome to matchup against every night.
Furthermore, because of Haith, Gill-Caesar will shouldn’t get overwhelmed against talented competition. Haith creates game plans for the Missouri Tigers to win. In eight games against the top-50 ranked schools last season, the Tigers posted a 4-4 record.
One of their wins was against the No. 18-ranked UCLA Bruins, who made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament. Also, the Tigers were flawless against the teams who had rankings 101 or lower, boasting a spotless 15-0 record.
Next season everything is there for Gill-Caesar to turn into one of the best prospects in college basketball. He’s going to learn from an awesome coach, he has young talent around him to go through growing pains with, he’s going to play elite competition nightly in the SEC and he’s going to have the responsibility as the go to scorer.
The setup is perfect, and if Gill-Caesar takes full advantage of this Macy’s gift-wrapped opportunity, he’s going to become yet another lottery pick for the beloved country of Canada.