It’s possible things are going to get worse before they get better when it comes to the portal.
But this offseason feels like a lot of bad news for the Missouri Tigers, even before the official opening. Clearly Mizzou is going to field a roster next year, the list of guys “Re-signing” to come back
next year is growing and it’s a solid list: Ahmad Hardy, Jamal Roberts, Matt Zollers, Cayden Green, Nick Rodriquez, Donovan Olugbude, Marquis Gracial… all have been ‘announced’ as coming back either by Mizzou Football’s instagram or by On3’s Hayes Fawcett.
The exits are extensive, and the freshman class is being hollowed out.
Gone are Javion Hilson, Henry Fenuku, Marquise Davis, Keiton Jones, Brendon Haygood, Mark Manfred, and CJ Bass. And that’s just the freshmen class.
The Offensive Line wasn’t great this past year, and they’re losing a LOT of depth.
Then Jeremiah Trotter announced he was heading to the NFL. We haven’t yet heard from Damon Wilson, but the defense is getting hammered with departures as well. Zion Young, Daylen Carnell, Chris McClellan, Toriano Pride, Drey Norwood, Jalen Catalon, Tristan Newson… it’s a lot to endure.
So Missouri is in the market for starting talent on both the defense and the offense, they need Wide Receivers, Offensive Lineman. probably at least a backup quarterback, and then half of a defense! No problem, right?
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
With it being a New Year’s holiday, activity was light. The only Mizzou related event was WBB taking on 2nd ranked Texas. I’ll let Dylan take it from there:
Texas won this game thanks to two categories: offensive rebounding and turnovers. Mizzou finished the game with a season-high 30 turnovers, which led to 36 points for the Longhorns. A combined 19 of those came from Lisa Thompson and Saniah Tyler, the two point guards on the roster. Abbey Schreacke was the only Tiger to not record a turnover. A big part of this came due to the Longhorns’ press which consistently trapped Mizzou in the backcourt.
“They make you play 1-on-1, they will not allow you to free flow through your offense,” head coach Kellie Harper said. “We couldn’t get open to make passes, and when we were open we were under such duress, we couldn’t make a pass. That’s part of their game plan. That’s who they are.”
Mizzou was hanging with them for about two and a half quarters, then the Longhorns went on an 11-0 run to expand a 4 point lead to a 15 point lead, and they didn’t look back. The Tigers shot the ball so well they nearly made up for the 30 turnovers. But a 40% turnover rate is hard to overcome.
- If you missed it, definitely check out my (annual) piece on What we’d like to see from Mizzou MBB in this 2026 calendar year:
2025 was a mix. They played and competed with the country’s best teams in the best league in NCAA basketball history. They beat the eventual national champion on their own floor in January. Then they faded a bit down the stretch, losing 6 of their last 8 games, and bowing out in the first round of the tournament.
The recruiting wins were a nice change of pace over the summer, but then this start of the season hasn’t gone as planned. The Tigers haven’t seemed to really build on their success last season, and have struck out on their only Quad 1 opportunities so far this season.
I wrote a lot on that column. I’m a believer in the talent on the roster, and I think the coaching staff has not done their part to adequately prepare the players for the big games to date. That doesn’t mean they can’t start. But they need to start soon. Like tomorrow!
- For RockM.plus, True wrote about what Mizzou should be looking for in the transfer portal, which like I mentioned above is an extensive list:
Hendricks has spent two seasons at Ohio, posting 578 receiving yards on 51 receptions through his Bobcat career. Prior to his time in Ohio, he was teammates at St. Mary’s with Mizzou running back Jamal Roberts, who has already been lobbying for the Bobcat to come back to his home state.
Scott, a second-year receiver out of Jacksonville, finished this season with 63 catches for 1018 yards and four touchdowns on West Florida, a Division II program. Mizzou offered Scott on Dec. 26 and he could be a diamond in the rough heading into next season.
The rest of the piece is paywalled but worth a look if you’re a subscriber.
ALSO ON THE FORUMS
Matt Watkins posted an update on his Revised Projections from the start of the year:
I’m not here to cheer you up necessarily, but I may in the process. Any sliver of hope is good, right? In terms of tournament qualification — insert Jim Mora playoff gif here — theh good news is Mizzou hasn’t tied on any anchors. Every loss when looking at things from a resume perspective is defensible for a tournament team. They’ve done nothing affirmative to help themselves, yes, but they still have 18 games to change that. After all, we talk about how bad bubble teams are each year. The path is there strictly looking at resume components. However, when you glance at HOW games have materialized, and consider margins of wins/defeats, I understand any skepticism. Consider me a member of your team if you’re too skeptical to see March dancing.
I said as much in the comments of my piece from yesterday, but if you’re a true hoop head and a Mizzou Hoops fan and not reading everything Watkins and Matt Harris are writing, you’re doing yourself a disservice. There are a lot of voices out there in Mizzou media, but there is no one who covers and talks about hoops quite like RMN and RM+.
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