No matter how you slice it, last season was a disaster for Missouri. One year after an NCAA Tournament in Dennis Gates’ debut as head coach, the Tigers lost every single SEC game, ending the season just 8-24. An abhorrent season saw Missouri fall apart in every aspect and fail to compete in a league that’s only gotten stronger this past offseason.
Whether or not this roster got stronger, it definitely will look pretty different next season. The Tigers lost a load of experience, including leading scorer Sean East and fellow seniors Noah Carter and Nick Honor. A few depth pieces transferred while Conor Vanover is gone as well, though the Tigers do bring back Tamar Bates, the junior guard who was their second-leading scorer last year.
A number of new pieces made their way to Columbia through the Transfer Portal, including Josh Gray, a center from South Carolina, and former UT Martin forward Jacob Crews. Missouri added a pair of point guards who can score in Tony Perkins out of Iowa and Northern Ketucky’s Marques Warrick, greatly rebuilding this backcourt. Either of those two could be the Tigers’ leading scorer next season, but we’re looking somewhere else for the most important transfer.
That honor goes to Mark Mitchell, a former 5-star forward from Kansas City who spent the last two years starting in Duke’s frontcourt. A rare transfer away from the Blue Devils, Mitchell showed significant promise as an underclassman and just put up 11.6 points and 6.0 rebounds as a sophomore. Nearly every aspect of his game took a step forward in his second collegiate season, including a 59% mark from inside the arc.
With the departures from last season, Missouri was facing a significant hole in the frontcourt. Now they can slide Mitchell into that position and hope he takes another prominent step forward as a junior. He pairs nicely with an undersized starting lineup and could be the paint presence that the Tigers need to get back into relevance. Even though he hasn’t been much of a shot blockers, he’s dependable in the paint.
Previously Mitchell was playing at Duke with Kyle Filipowski and other elite frontcourt talent. He now has a chance to be the guy down there and it’ll be intriguing to see what kind of production he can put up in that new role. There’s definitely scoring and plenty of potential around him with these new additions, but Mitchell’s ability to finish down low would go a long way to making this Missouri squad two-dimensional.
Missouri lost every single game against the SEC last season and adding Mitchell is the kind of moves that a program makes to avoid a repeat performance. He’ll be an excellent asset in Columbia and should fill a glaring hole with excellence. The biggest question is whether these moves are enough to get the Tigers back into contention in an even stronger SEC. Can Mitchell be the force that brings them back to the NCAA Tournament?
