Missouri basketball has been trending in the right direction under Dennis Gates, and with its most talented roster yet, looks to take that next jump.
The tradition continues! It’s another year of our countdown of the top 100 preseason teams in college basketball until the start of the season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: Missouri basketball.
Dennis Gates has had quite the roller coaster of a ride as Missouri head coach after a dreadful 2024-25 season, but other than that, there have been a ton of ups will now come into the season with a really talented group, highlighted by five-star freshman point guard Jason Crowe Jr.
Mark Mitchell was returning to the Tigers for a fifth year, but was recently ruled ineligible on Oct. 2, as part of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which had overturned the injunction for Mitchell and several other athletes trying to get eligible for the upcoming season.
The team has a lot of veterans, whether it be via the transfer portal or returning to the team, with one of the leaders in the locker room being Trent Pierce, who is back for his senior campaign.
With how stacked the SEC is going to be for this upcoming season, it will be very interesting to see how the Tigers will match up with the rest of the league and how it will shape out in regards to the standings, as every conference game will be an absolute war and a high-level matchup.
The Tigers will be battle-tested by the start of conference play with a ton of non-conference neutral-site games mixed with some road games against Power 5 opponents and some rivals like Kansas and Illinois.
Head coach: Dennis Gates (8th season overall, 5th at Missouri)
2025-26 record: 20-13 (10-8)
2026 postseason finish: Lost to Miami-Fla (80-66) in first round of NCAA Tournament
Notable departures:
- Anthony Robinson II (8.9 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 3.0 APG)
- T.O. Barrett (8.6 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 3.0 APG)
- Jayden Stone (13.5 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.9 APG, 38.5 3P%)
- Jacob Crews (8.4 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 43.4 3P %)
- Shawn Phillips Jr. (7.6 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.5 BPG, 68.3 FG%)
- Sebastian Mack (7.0 PPG, 1.3 RPG, 0.6 APG)
- Jevon Porter (6.2 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 64.7 FG%)
Notable non-conference games:
- vs. Saint Louis (Nov. 6) – Saint Louis, MO
- vs. Marquette (Nov. 15) – Chicago, IL
- vs. Pittsburgh (Dec. 1) – ACC/SEC Challenge
- vs. Kansas (Dec. 6) – Kansas City, MO
- vs. Nebraska (Dec. 12) – Kansas City, MO
- at Indiana (Dec. 18)
- vs. Illinois (Dec. 20) – Saint Louis, MO
Projected Rotation
PG: Jason Crowe Jr. (6-4, 190, Fr.)
247Sports Composite No. 7- ranked recruit
2nd-highest-ranked recruit out of high school to commit to the Tigers behind Michael Porter Jr.
SG: Jamier Jones (6-6, 225, So.)
2025-26 stats: 11.9 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 1.4 APG, 38.7 3P% (Providence)
SF: Kennard Davis Jr. (6-6, 210, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 8.5 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 1.3 APG, 32.1 3P% (BYU)
PF: Trent Pierce (6-10, 230, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 10.4 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 1.2 APG, 1.1 SPG
C: Bryson Tiller (6-11, 245, So.)
2025-26 stats: 7.9 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 1.0 APG, 44.9 FG%, 1.3 BPG (Kansas)
6: Toni Bryant (6-10, 215, Fr.)
247Sports Composite No. 21 ranked recruit
7: Annor Boateng (6-6, 230, Jr.)
2025-26 stats: 2.7 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 0.3 APG, 25.0 3P%
8: Cord Stansberry (6-4, 190, Gr.-Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 14.1 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 2.1 APG, 0.9 SPG (Western Carolina)
9: Jaylen Carey (6-8, 255, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 7.4 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 1.3 APG, 48.7 FG% (Tennessee)
10: Jordan Crawford (6-2, 180, Gr.)
2025-26 stats: 14.4 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 1.4 APG, 36.8 3P% (South Dakota)
Missouri basketball team MVP: Jason Crowe Jr.
Usually, in today’s era of college basketball, most teams’ best player will not be an incoming freshman, but for Missouri, that is not the case with Jason Crowe Jr. coming in as a top-five recruit on all sites.
Missouri was really dominant down low a season ago, but did not have consistency at the guard spot to be able to carry the load at times, and with Crowe Jr., that will change.
Crowe Jr. was a prolific scorer at the high school level and was a smooth operator as a lefty, whether holding the most points in California high school basketball or scoring 48 points in a game. Crowe Jr. already has a ton of accolades before even touching the floor in COMO. He is an electric three-level scorer that can take you off the dribble and get to the rim and create for his teammates while also being able to knock down deep threes.
The pressure may be there to deliver for the Tiger faithful, but Crowe Jr. has had that for his last couple of seasons playing for his dad in high school and now playing for his dad, who is on staff as an assistant coach with Coach Gates.
Missouri basketball make-or-break player: Bryson Tiller
The transfer portal has made rival fans hate each other more, and that seems to be the case when Bryson Tiller transferred from Kansas to Missouri in the offseason.
Tiller was a very talented prospect out of high school and showed tons of flashes at Kansas with some dominant performances, but just could not be consistent as a ton of freshmen go through on a night-to-night basis.
For Missouri to stay in the upper half of the SEC this season, it will need Tiller to be consistent for the majority of the season, matching up with the dominant bigs in the conference and making a jump as a consistent scorer.
If Tiller can make that jump, especially with no Mark Mitchell anymore for the time being, he will have a lot more on his plate on the offensive end to help out Crowe Jr. and Jamier Jones in the scoring department.
Key statistic: Points in the paint
Whenever Dennis Gates has had success in the SEC, it has been with dominant bigs down low and running that two-big lineup to control and dominate the points in the paint.
As a team during the 2025-2026 campaign, it shot 49.0% from the floor, which was heavily helped by all the shots in the painted area that were either easy dunks or layups. The team was also top 100 in scoring per game with 79 points, so it could win in a shootout or could win in a rock fight type of game on the hardwood.
The Tigers will need to set the tone early on this season down low and continue the momentum through the tough non-conference schedule and into SEC play.
Missouri Basketball 2026-27 projections
Projected conference finish: 8th in the SEC
Projected postseason ceiling: NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 exit