Missouri Tigers
Pros
For the St. Louis native, Missouri has always been the hometown team for Love (unless he follows the Billikens in the A-10). The ability to stay home and be the local star is a huge selling point for high school athletes, including recently Romeo Langford to Indiana. Head Coach Cuanzo Martin is one of the better recruiters out there and has landed great talent in the past.
Although Love would be joining a program in the Tigers that is much closer to the bottom of the SEC than the top, the 2020-21 team could be one that with him, could make some real noise. The team does have to replace their leading scorer and top guard from last season in Jordan Geist, but only has two rotation senior players on the roster now who aren’t projected starters. There’s a real possibility that Missouri will return a ton of production, along with even more talent by the time Love arrives if he chooses Missouri. Love would be the focal point of the offense and have the offense suited to his strengths, showcasing his skillset all year long.
Cons
The comparison to Langford can also be a bad one when considering what Love decides to do. His one-year stint with the Hoosiers was a big struggle that ended with not only missing the NCAA Tournament but also his draft stock sliding out of the top-10. A thumb injury combined with a lack of surrounding talent had a lot to do with it. Outside of former top-50 big man recruit Jeremiah Tilmon (if he even stays for his senior season), there’s not much surrounding talent for him to play with.
Not only that but how good would the Tigers be with Love anyways? Georgia landed the No. 2 overall recruit in the 2019 class Anthony Edwards along with four other top-100 recruits for this season and are still a projected bubble team. That’s how difficult the SEC is overall to compete in and while Love would certainly make them competitive, the risks involved are somewhat too big compared to the potential rewards.