I caught up with Missouri’s 2024 commit, 6’6 Wing Marcus Allen. Last year Allen attended national powerhouse Arizona Compass and helped lead them to the National Championship game. Instead of returning and helping Compass rebuild with the goal of another run, Allen decided to head back to Miami and Norland High School, “being far away from family made me realize how much I love and miss them, it was a tough decision because I loved the experience and competition that Compass gave me but being home before heading off to college was important to me”.
With that decision complete his college decision was next and Missouri won the battle, “family and God helped me with my choice, the Missouri staff made the decision fairly easy, they made my family and me feel like family, and they cared more about helping me become a good man than basketball player”.
What will Allen bring to Columbia, MO? I had a chance to cover him at the NBPA Top100 camp where I felt he was one of the top defenders there. I asked him about his experience, “it was great experience, and I learned a lot, it was a blessing competing against some of the best talent in the country, while the knowledge I gained from interacting with current and past NBA players was invaluable”. When asked about what the difference was from last year he stated, “I’ve grown a lot as a player and really matured”.
As one of the best on defenders in the country, I asked him who was the toughest player he went against, in response he said “Jakobe Walters, he’s one of the best scorers in that class and he was tough to guard”. If you have been paying attention, yes, that Walters who is having a great start to his freshman year at Baylor.
With defense as his calling card I asked, what was your focus going into last summer? “To become the best player, I can be, I worked out three times a day and that continues today”, he finished.
When asked about his favorite player, “I love Kawhi Leonard”. Just like Leonard was at this age, he laid his hat on his defensive and worked on his offensive skills in the process and for that the Missouri faithful should be excited.