Western Kentucky Post Jamarion Sharp has entered the transfer portal

This is not a drill.

It’s been speculated for weeks, and nearly months. But it’s official, Jamarion Sharp has entered the transfer portal.

So why are we bringing up this news at a Mizzou blog you ask? A few reasons. First, Jamarion Sharp plays a position of near desperate need for the new Missouri Tigers roster. Second, Sharp played Junior College at John A. Logan College in Illinois. Third, he played FOR former John A. Logan head coach and now Mizzou assistant coach Kyle Smithpeters. And fourth, we’ve been talking about Sharp as a potential portal addition, and a potential roster addition at Missouri for a while.

But as we’ve said again and again, Sharp had to enter the portal in order for the connection to matter. Now he’s in the portal, and the connection matters.

Sharp is a unique player in college basketball. He’s 7’5, and moves well. He had the second highest blocked shot rate in the country behind Walker Kessler. He’s low usage, but highly efficient on offense (it helps when you can grab the rim without jumping). He had a 121 ORtg with a 73.2% eFG rate. So yeah. The kind of rim protection you want.

The interest around Sharp should be very high so I would not consider this a lock for Mizzou. There are rumors of Louisville interest, and he’s originally from Hopkinsville, KY so staying closer to home may be a factor (he’s already really close to home at Western Kentucky), there’s also been a little talk of Penny Hardaway and Memphis. But the connection to Smithpeters is real, and Mizzou will be a major factor in where he ends up. Plus there are a heap of minutes at the five available next season.

Mizzou has signed Mohamed Diarra, but Diarra is a bit more of a stretch forward than a center. So while he can provide rim protection he’s not the guy you want logging major minutes in the middle in the SEC. If Mizzou can land Sharp, suddenly the defense looks pretty fierce.