Missouri Tigers Basketball: Montaque Gill-Caesar Plans To Transfer

By Tyler Wornell | Jul 18, 2015

Missouri Tigers basketball took a big hit when Montaque Gill-Caesar announced he was leaving the program.

Just when fans of the Missouri Tigers basketball team thought that the team couldn’t get any worse, Montaque Gill-Caesar announced on Wednesday that he would be transferring from the University of Missouri, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN. Kim Anderson’s job just got a lot harder.

Gill-Caesar was one of the most hyped players last year, a freshman out of Huntington Prep in West Virginia. Gill-Caesar averaged 9.1 points and 3.0 rebounds last season. His production on the court decreased following a back injury on Dec. 20, which caused him to miss the first three SEC games. He was averaging 12.6 points before the injury.

The decision to transfer was mutual between Gill-Caesar and Mizzou, according to Goodman’s article linked above, but one has to wonder if that’s really the case.

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Missouri went 9-23 last season in Kim Anderson’s first year and is currently going through a rebuilding phase. Gill-Caesar is a guy that Anderson could have used as a cornerstone piece for the future, and I don’t imagine he wanted to give him up very easily.

Gill-Caesar ranked fourth on the team in minutes played, and was the team’s third highest scorer. Needless to say, he was a key component to the offense. With his departure, Anderson will now have to fill a hole in an already lackluster offense.

Where does that leave Missouri’s roster? Not in great shape.

Missouri already lost their leading scorer from last season, Jonathan Williams III, and will now have to make up the loss of Gill-Caesar as well. Former coach Frank Haith didn’t leave Anderson much to work with, so the already thin roster just got thinner.

While the team has received commitments from high school recruits such as Kevin Puryear and K.J. Walton, this team lacks confidence and leadership. It was dreadful watching them play last year, as they often looked dazed and confused on the court.

Ryan Rosburg will be the team’s lone senior, but he averaged just 16.7 minutes and 3.3 points last season. Anderson spoke several times during the season about the lack of a clear leader in the locker room, and it doesn’t look like that will change much this season.

The success of the 2015 team is going to depend largely upon how Anderson handles these offseason hurdles. Managing a team of such large group of young players is no easy task, and building chemistry is a longer process than any program can afford.

It’s unclear how short of a leash Anderson is operating under, but he has a lot of work to do. Even in the NCAA, winning is just as, if not more important than developing talent.

The Houston Astros have proven that rebuilding an entire team can be done in under 3 years, but the big question is if Missouri is willing to give Anderson that long. They moved the SEC in hopes of drawing bigger recruits and more money, but you need to win first in order to do that.

Anderson may be a favorited alum, but that doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to stay here five plus years. While is contract may be a five-year deal, Missouri could cut ties earlier than that if Anderson isn’t producing the results the university wants. Ties to a university don’t mean anything unless you prove you can build a championship winning program.

Anderson already had a long road to any final four, and it just got longer.

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