Menzies’ recruiting prowess takes toll on Mizzou hoops

By Jeff Gordon, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (TNS)

Friday, May 20, 2016 | 2 a.m.

UNLV is just killing Mizzou on the basketball recruiting trail.

The Tigers desperately need another big man for next season. Their staff worked high school standout Cheickna Dembele of Pennsylavania's Scotland Performance Institute all season and appeared to be in great shape on him.

Then Marvin Menzies became head coach at UNLV, arriving from New Mexico State long after the season ended. He replaced Chris Beard, who was hired from Arkansas-Little Rock and then quickly bailed for Texas Tech.

Menzies inherited a team with just four players. Scrambling to fill roster spots, he reeled Dembele in for a visit and signed him out from under Missouri.

So Missouri coach Kim Anderson found another big guy, 6-foot-10 Djordjije Sljivancanin, who was still on the market due to his injury-marred transition from European basketball to the U.S. prep scene at IMG Academy in Florida.

Sljivancanin visited Columbia last week and looked things over. But Menzies was still on the trail, adding players, and he swept in to grab the big Ukrainian fellow, too.

"We are looking forward to getting him here this summer and getting him involved with the rest of the team as soon as possible," Menzies said in a news release. "Djordjije and his family were able to visit us this past weekend, and there was immediate chemistry between their family and ours. He went through a long process to come to this decision, and we are extremely happy that we were able to make the connection.

"Djordjije is another high-character addition to our team. He is a long, athletic big man who will fit well into our style of play. He is a very capable passer and shooter from the perimeter as well."

Menzies, 54, is an ace recruiter. He worked under successful head coaches like Steve Fisher, Lon Kruger and Rick Pitino before building a consistent winner at New Mexico State. He posted a 198-111 record there and made five NCAA Tournaments in nine seasons.

"There's no head coach in the United States that's going to outwork me," Menzies said when he was hired at UNLV. "That's not going to happen. I'm going to do that no matter where I am. I could be at New Mexico State or Santa Monica (California) Community College. I'm a competitor, so expectations don't bother me. My expectations are higher than anybody else could have."

Some Mizzou fans still believe it takes four or five years to turn around a basketball program. But the industry moves much faster than that, as frenetic recruiters like Menzies prove.

In just a few weeks Menzies rounded up a class of eight players, including a graduate transfer, a JUCO transfer, a Division I transfer and five high school players — including two the Tigers could have really used.