What we all want to see from Missouri Basketball in 2026

As we flip to a new calendar year, what hopes and dreams are we imprinting on the Missouri Men’s Basketball Tigers?

Summarized by AI ⓘ

What is the story about?

If nothing else, 2025 was an interesting year for Mizzou men’s basketball.

At the start of the year they were playing like one of the 10 best teams in College Basketball. It was fun, it was exciting. Then it trailed off.

Then the offseason hit and there was all sorts of weird fun recruiting things! Then the season started and there were less fun things!

I like this exercise because it’s a different way to look at the growth of a basketball program, over just a season by season outlook. Mainly because the offseason

is something that really cultivates a builds your basketball program in order to win more games each season. Let’s recap:

With 2025 behind us, let’s take a quick look at how Missouri performed against our hopes for the calendar year:

Build an NCAA Tournament Resume — They did more than just build a tournament resume. They landed their highest NCAA Tournament seed since the 2012 season, when that team had a 2 seed. There have been 5 tournament appearances since 2012, and now Dennis Gates has been seeded 7th and 6th, which is higher than any of the other appearances.
Have another expectedly quiet portal season — Perhaps Missouri was a little too quiet in the portal. They held on to key cogs Mark Mitchell and Anthony Robinson, as well as Jacob Crews. Plus three of the five freshmen, considering the transfer portal these days and player movement it’s not nothing to keep three guys who barely saw the floor, if at all, last year.
Build another foundational recruiting class in 2026 and beyond — Check and check. Missouri landed it’s highest recruit since Michael Porter, Jr when Jason Crowe, Jr committed over the summer. They also landed Toni Bryant who is the third highest rated player, and already added 2027’s Scottie Adkinson who is currently the 7th highest rated. That means Dennis Gates has landed four of the top 7 recruits in 247sports.com’s All-time Commits list. And don’t overlook Aidan Chronister, a 6’7 wing who can drain threes has a lot of value as well.
Win back Braggin’ Rights, burn down Phog, play a better non-con — so I had the Phog part wrong, I thought there was one more game at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, and there were instead two back to back games in Kansas City. Beyond that, things couldn’t have gone worse for this hope. They got blasted by KU, blown away by Illinois, and played a pretty poor non-conference schedule.

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.

If there’s hope it’s because the SEC is a far cry from what it was last year, while still being a quality league overall. Last season the SEC had two 1 seeds, two 2 seeds, a three seed, a four seed, two six seeds, and 14 of 16 teams made the tournament. It was historically good, and included two Final Four participants and the eventual National Champion.

This year the SEC has none of that. The highest rated team in KenPom.com is 8th rated Vanderbilt, who have yet to play anyone inside the top 30, and needed OT to beat a bad Memphis team. Florida’s guard play has weakened their chances of a repeat, and they’re joined by Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky inside the top 20. Currently BartTorvik.com lists the most likely scenario for the league getting 9 NCAA tournament bids. That’s still a good year for the SEC, but markedly down from where they were last year.

Mizzou hasn’t played all that well this season, and they’ve looked a lot more like a team watching the tournament than playing in it. But the league will give them opportunities, if they can figure out how to be the best version of themselves.

They’re a far cry from being what I thought they could be, which is a potential top 4 team in the league. But I also don’t think they’re as bad as they’ve looked against Kansas and Illinois. There’s time to fix things, but you better start soon.

Figure out who you want to be

Perhaps my biggest complaint about this current version of the basketball Tigers is they lack a real identity as a team. They have guards who are good in the pick and roll, but don’t seem to run much pick and roll. They have one of the top forwards in the country, one who excels in the open floor, but they don’t play fast. They have solid depth but don’t press defensively, and are actually very passive on defense.

In short, I don’t really know at this point how Dennis Gates wants to play. In year 1 and year 3 they mostly played fast. In year 2 they rarely shot free throws, and then last year nearly led the nation in FTA.

With the construction of the current roster, there seems to be a nice collection of talent, but they’re not all playing the same game. And it’s holding them back.

I realize there are detractors, but Gates is a smart man, and a good basketball coach. But if you want to be a great basketball coach you need to be able to impose your style of play on your opponent, and not adjust your style of play to try and beat them at their game. At this level there are just too many good teams, who play such contrasting styles, for that approach to succeed over the long term.

I don’t know if this season will result in an NCAA Tournament berth or not. Frankly it might be good for them to miss again. Missing the tournament (and frankly having such an embarrassing season) resulted in one of the best seasons in recent Mizzou basketball history. But I really believe Gates can accomplish all the things he stated in his press conference, however in order to do that he really needs to begin by figuring out who he wants his Tigers to be.

Plug holes via the portal, build around your young talent

The reality is Mizzou has three incoming freshmen signed who are as good as any they’ve singed in a single class in program history.

We’re officially at the end of COVID years, Jacob Crews and Jayden Stone represent the last two eligibility waivers the Tigers are likely to see granted for guys who played College Basketball way back in 2021. The only remaining wrench could be the NCAA granting a 5th year of eligibility, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but seems like a long shot at this point.

A 5th year would affect Shawn Phillips, Mark Mitchell and Jevon Porter. Crews and Stone are done no matter what this year. But short of the 5th year being granted, we’re looking at a minimum of needing to replace three spots.

With things not going as smoothly as you might want, it’s easy to see how there could be some additional roster turnover.

The only other wrench in the plans is the health of Trent Pierce. We’re at the stage where it’s possible he takes a medical redshirt and just focuses on getting healthy for the 2026-27 season. Then he would be slotted back into the same class as Annor Boateng and TO Barrett. Missouri could have as many as 9 returning players next season.

Continuity is the reason why Gates is investing energy and resources into prep recruiting, where most other coaches are focusing more on the portal. Roster turnover is expected and even last year we didn’t necessarily expect Marcus Allen and Peyton Marshall to both hit the portal, yet they did. Here is the newcomer count (we might as well just keep this going):

2025 (Gates): 7 newcomers
2024 (Gates): 10 newcomers
2023 (Gates): 8 newcomers
2022 (Gates): 9 newcomers
2021 (Martin): 9 newcomers
2020 (Martin): 5 newcomers
2019 (Martin): 3 newcomers
2018 (Martin): 6 newcomers
2017 (Martin): 6 newcomers
2016 (Anderson): 7 newcomers
2015 (Anderson): 6 newcomers
2014 (Anderson): 6 newcomers
2013 (Haith): 8 newcomers
2012 (Haith): 8 newcomers

Jason Crowe, Jr. is going to be a foundational player on next years roster. It looks like Anthony Robinson II isn’t bursting towards being drafted, and Aaron Rowe is still a high ceiling point guard. The guard rotation should be pretty solid with those three, plus TO Barrett. Next is you need to figure out your front court, and find some additional help on the wing.

Scottie Adkinson can help build your next class

I’m excited for what Jason Crowe, Jr can provide the Tigers this year. He’s a scorer on a team that really needs a scorer. But I’m also not sure Crowe will last long in Columbia, he’s a top 10 player and an elite scorer, and guys like that tend to leave for the draft sooner than later. But this next offseason will be about building around one of my favorite players to commit to Mizzou in recent years: Scottie Adkinson.

It’s hard to project a roster one year out, much less two years out. But Adkinson is a special player, and he’s a winner. You can build around him for next years recruiting class, as well as your roster for the next 3-4 years. Having a guard like Adkinson, with an upperclassmen Rowe, Aidan Chronister and Toni Bryant, plus a developed Nicholas Randall… there are reasons to really like where this is going.

Mizzou needs to pair Adkinson with another attacking guard, and one who can shoot it from outside. Matt Harris already profiled the 2027 class, I suggest you read it here. But I’m a continued believer in recruiting and retaining high school talent over prioritizing the transfer portal. With Adkinson in the fold, 2027 could be a special class.

Forgo the crash lab, play a real schedule, and fix the performances against your main rivals

I’m not going to be as greedy as I was last year in asking that you beat both KU and Illinois. I am, however, going to request that these games are competitive. There’s no reason to get boatraced against either of these two teams, especially when both are looking like good, but far from elite, teams.

One thing that helped Cuonzo Martin get shown the door was his lack of competitiveness against these two rivals. Mizzou basketball fans are a pretty patient bunch, and I think most are largely still with Gates and his tenure. But you’ve got to start building out consistency. Year over year. Yes some of that will include beating Illinois and Kansas, but what you can’t do is not be competitive with them.

I also would suggest a move away from the hard crash lab, scheduling as many as 9 Quad 4 games at home, when most teams are only going to 5-6. I understand you need a balance of games where you can work out the kinks and expand your lineups and all that. But if you’ve got 10 returners and a couple of transfers the amount of spin up time you need to figure out rotations should be greatly reduced.

You want to schedule a few of your friends coaching low-major programs? Do it. But I think, at most, 7 Q4 games is enough. And really it should be no more than 6. You need to test your team earlier. Doing that will help you figure out where things are wrong on your roster, so you’re not waiting until late December still running out groups that don’t work together.

Some of the competitiveness will be fixed with a roster of offensive players who can do more things. Missouri is just limited this year, more than we expected them to be. You can’t trust the sophomores to score the ball, so you need to get creative. A player like Crowe will fix a lot of that, as will more development. But you won’t learn those things playing South Dakota, or four games against the SWAC and the MEAC. You’ve got to improve scheduling.

Go play Iowa. Maybe figure out how to beat Ben McCollum. Go play Nebraska, figure out how to beat Fred Hoiberg. There are plenty of opportunities to improve your tournament resume, and none of them involve beating an OVC school at home in early November.

At this point, I’ve written a lot. So I’m going to sign off. My last thought here is that what I want, more than anything, from Missouri basketball in 2026? A move towards consistency. Be good, year after year.