It’s been a bit of an eventful week for the Mizzou Basketball team.
On Monday, Tennessee transfer post Jaylen Carey committed to the Tigers. Then on Tuesday, Providence transfer wing Jamier Jones did the same. Not to be outdone, then Kansas transfer post Bryson Tiller cross the border to commit to the good guys.
Missouri has completely changed the outlook of their front court. They already had Luke Northweather, Trent Pierce, Trent Burns, and Nicholas Randall returning from last season. All four players
were capable of manning either the four or the five spot.
So with the four already on the roster, and the three added via the transfer portal, plus 5-star freshman Toni Bryant, the Tigers appear to be pretty set in the front court. So we’re staring with the basic numbers, here’s the full roster count:
There are three spots left on the roster. 12 spots are taken up and there aren’t many guards.
If you break it down by depth chart it makes even more sense, as there appear to be two point guards, and then the closest thing you get to a combo guard is a player who was listed as a power forward coming out of high school, in Jamier Jones.
I don’t know if this is a projection as much as a filling out of roles, Mizzou has made its early living in the portal by fixing weak points. No offense to any of the returning players, but there isn’t much in the way of proven production. Northweather has played in 75 games but started only 2. Trent Burns played only 13.5% of the minutes this past year, and Randall saw just 9% of the minutes.
Annor Boateng is rehabbing his knee injury, Aidan Chronister is a freshman… so only Trent Pierce returns with any experience and he played just 42.6% of the minutes last year. Part of that was him missing the non-conference play.
But it doesn’t take a genius to see where the holes are in the roster at this point. Jones is skilled enough to be a Terrrence Shannon-like point forward. But he’s not a combo guard, not really.
Jason Crowe, Jr. is as much of a known quantity at guard as you can get without having played a game of College Basketball. Aaron Rowe was once a highly touted prospect, and he still has all the tools of that player without the experience. But this story remains the same. Mizzou has no proven ball handlers.
Therein lies the the remainder of the transfer portal for the Tigers. They need ball handlers. Preferably ball handlers who can shoot. Is it too much to ask that they find a 6’4-6’5 combo guard who can sink threes at a 44% clip on catch and shoots and has a turnover rate that’s under 15%?
We have a few names on Rock M+ that the staff is vetting if you’re wondering where things are, otherwise we’ll keep tuned into the every evolving news stream. But I think at least this weekend will be pretty quiet.
