The final count is in.Missouri basketball added six players via the transfer portal this offseason, taking the Tigers to the NCAA maximum of 15 players on the roster for next year. That means, a little less than two months removed from a first-round loss to Miami in March Madness, that Mizzou’s offseason work for next year has effectively ended.
Mizzou targeted the frontcourt first with the additions of Jaylen Carey from Tennessee and Bryson Tiller from Kansas.
Mizzou added guard options in Jamier Jones from Providence and Kennard Davis Jr. from BYU, and the Tigers finished up their portal work with back-to-back depth pickups in Jordan Crawford from South Dakota and, on Sunday, Cord Stansberry from Western Carolina.
The Tigers lost three — or five — players via the portal, depending on how you want to do your accounting.
The three players who will absolutely be playing elsewhere next season are guards T.O. Barrett (Vanderbilt), Anthony Robinson II (Florida State) and Sebastian Mack (uncommitted). Two more players, Jacob Crews and Jevon Porter, are in the transfer portal but need NCAA hardship/medical waivers to play next season.
Next up: A 2026-27 season that has perhaps the highest ceiling for any year of Dennis Gates’ Missouri tenure.
Here’s how we’d assess Mizzou’s transfer portal business as the Tigers retooled for Gates’ fifth season:
Who was Missouri basketball’s best portal addition?
The first direct transfer between Border War schools, with Tiller making the move across enemy lines from Kansas to Mizzou, is maybe Missouri’s most-pivotal addition.
Gates indicated at a Mizzou caravan stop April 29 in St. Charles, Missouri, that the Tigers’ portal sales pitch for Tiller was the Mark Mitchell developmental path.
“There’s none other than a person like Bryson Tiller,” Gates said, “who I believe can do that.”
That’s quite a high bar.
Mitchell led Missouri in points, rebounds and assists last season. The Tigers do not make the NCAA Tournament without him.
Mizzou does not necessarily need all of that from Tiller. But, it does need to replenish some lost production in its frontcourt.
Tiller averaged 7.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game as a starter for Kansas as a freshman. If he can continue to develop, he’ll be among MU’s most-important players this season, likely splitting time between the four and the five.
Who was MU’s most significant portal loss?
Mizzou didn’t lose an irreplaceable player to the portal, but it may have been nice to keep one of Barrett or Robinson in town.
With five-star freshman Jason Crowe Jr. arriving, the Tigers’ primary point guards from last year faced an uphill battle for minutes and likely would have needed to primarily play an off-ball role to see significant playing time.
The likelier option to stay was probably Barrett, but would he have stayed to essentially be a backup or play out of position? Robinson is headed back to his hometown to play for Florida State as a senior and seemed to be the most likely player to leave this offseason after a junior-year slump.
Ideally, Missouri would have kept one of them for the benefit of experience and familiarity. But the price tag for a non-starting role for each or both of those players likely was too high to justify, and the future of the position with Crowe is bright.
Biggest positive: The Tigers are huge
We expect this to be Mizzou’s primary eight-player rotation: Crowe, Davis, Jones, Pierce, Bryant, Carey, Tiller and Burns.
If MU can get meaningful minutes from Crawford, returning forward Nicholas Randall or freshman wing Aidan Chronister, that’s a bonus.
The smallest player in the primary group is Crowe at 6-3. The next shortest is Davis at 6-6 and 215 pounds. Pierce, Tiller and Burns are 6-10 or taller, and Carey checks in at 6-8 and 267 pounds.
That’s a massive lineup. Extremely likely to be one of the biggest and tallest in college basketball next season.
If Mizzou isn’t a vastly improved defensive and rebounding team next season, something has gone wrong.
Biggest lingering concern: Where is the shooting?
We’re not quite as concerned about Mizzou’s depth at point guard as some. Crowe is going to eat up the bulk of the minutes there. Davis can handle the rest.
But, 3-point shooting from the two-guard? That’s still a question mark we’d like to see answered.
Mizzou will have volume from behind the arc.
Davis, according to CBB Analytics, lofted 7.0 attempts from behind the arc every 40 minutes. Expected backups Crawford and Stansberry took 8.3 and 8.5 attempts, respectively, from 3-point range per 40 minutes. For reference, Crews led Mizzou with 7.6 shots and Pierce took 7.0 attempts per 40 last year.
But, next season’s Mizzou players had a combined 32.6% (254-of-778) shooting clip from 3-point range last year. That would have ranked 247th in the country last season.
Now, the obvious solution is that MU’s shotmaking rookie, Crowe, helps the cause. Mizzou, with its size, also will almost certainly be more of an immense above-the-rim offense than a run-and-gun 3-point outfit.
But you’d like some balance to open up the interior, and while Mizzou has added players comfortable taking shots, there’s not necessarily an obvious sharpshooter to space the floor in this portal class.
Overall transfer portal grade: A-
It’s hard to argue that this was anything but an excellent window for Gates and company. Mizzou needed size and physicality, and it added both across the board.
Bolstering the frontcourt was Priority No. 1, and the additions of Tiller and Carey are excellent additions.
Mizzou needed guard depth and it got that with two Power-conference starters in Jones and Davis.
The only reason we’re holding back from a full A grade is because we have questions about exactly where Davis and Jones will play.
Jones spent most of his time as a power forward for Providence and now is going to play shooting guard. That’s different. Davis is quite a bit bigger than your average point guard, and Missouri is going to ask him to take on some combo guard duties.
That’s not necessarily either player’s natural role, but that also doesn’t necessarily mean there is any reason for concern.
This team has a higher ceiling than any other roster since Gates arrived in 2022. It has the potential to be his best defensive team. Rebounding should vastly improve. Mizzou’s size is fascinating.
There are six months until the new season begins, and it’s reasonable in May to feel quite optimistic about where the Tigers stand.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri basketball transfer portal scorecard for six additions
