Frank Haith is off to a good start on the recruiting trail

The biggest concern that most folks, including myself, have in regards to Missouri's future under Frank Haith is how well Haith and his coaching staff are going to be able to recruit.

With seven players -- including key pieces like Kim English, Ricardo Ratliffe, Laurence Bowers and Marcus Denmon -- graduating after this season, for Haith to have sustained success with a program many believe can compete for this year's Big 12 title he's going to have to restock the cupboard.

Recruiting top talent to a school like Missouri is not necessarily an easy thing to do. Its certainly more difficult when, as a coach, you have potential NCAA sanctions hanging over your head -- if you've forgetten, Yahoo! Sports reported that Haith knew about a $10,000 payment paid to secure the services of DeQuan Jones at Miami. Negative recruiting is the practice of drilling the cons of a program competing with you for a recruit into that kid's head. How many times to you think Rodney Purvis has heard that Haith is going to be fired before he steps foot on a college campus?


The good news is that before any of the shrapnel from the Miami scandal struck Haith, he was able to land two key transfers in Earnest Ross, who led Auburn in scoring and rebounding last season, and Keion Bell, a high-scoring and high-flying guard from Pepperdine. Both players will become eligible in 2012-2013 -- Ross for two seasons, Bell for one -- and will provide some talent and experience to help hold the program over while some of the younger guys the Tigers bring in develop.

And there will be younger guys coming in. For all the negative recruiting and the smoke surrounding the program, Haith has steadily been landing commitments.

Yesterday, it was Travis Jorgenson, a 5'10" Missouri-native and three-star recruit according to Rivals, that committed to the Tigers, joining Tyrek Coger in the Class of 2013.

Last Saturday, it was Shawn Smith, a three-star off-guard from Florida, that committed to Missouri. He joins Quantel Denson, Aaron Scales and Simon Goines as Haith's Class of 2012 commits.

All told, that's six commitments Haith has already gotten for his next two recruiting classes. Hard to argue against that being a good start.

Its far from the end, however. None of those players have been mentioned in any of the top 100 lists that we use to make our Consensus Recruiting Rankings. The next step for Haith, and Tim Fuller, who is Haith's lead recruiter, is to land some of the top 25 and top 50 kids they are chasing -- Rodney Purvis and Marcus Smart and Chicken Knowles.

Landing local kids is easy. Convincing elite talent to take a risk by committing Missouri is a different story, but it will make the difference between competing for NCAA Tournament berths and Big 12 titles.