Mizzou Basketball: Bounce back season a success
By Britt Zank
The first Mizzou Basketball season under head coach Cuonzo Martin may have ended earlier than some fans wanted, but it was still a successful season.
The Tigers finished last season 8-24. No that is not a typo, they only won eight games for the entire season, and only two in the SEC. And those games weren’t close games that ball just didn’t bounce their way, they were dominated almost every night. It is not an exaggeration to say they were the laughing stock of college basketball.
The day the season ended though the program turned around on a dime. Kim Anderson was fired and was replaced with Martin in less than a week. The program went from being run by a division two coach to a true division one coach with multiple trips to the big dance in his resume. That’s like the Kansas City Royals going from Terrance Gore starting in center field to Lorenzo Cain.
Less than a week after being hired Martin made the biggest splash in program history when he received a commitment from the number one recruit in the country Michael Porter Jr. In two weeks the Tigers went from the laughing stock of college basketball to having the a one and done player Duke, North Carolina and Kansas would have killed for.
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Porter Jr unfortunately did not live up to the hype on the court. He injured in his back just two minutes into the season and missed the rest of the regular season. He didn’t play until the first round of the SEC Tournament which the Tigers lost. He played against the Seminoles scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, but he still isn’t 100%. He had back surgery that kept him out of any basketball activities for four months. You can’t be expected to be in division one basketball shape with six practices after that long of time.
Porter Jr deserves respect for playing what he did though when he didn’t have to. He’s a lottery pick whether he played or not but he wanted to play. He got to play for his dad, who is an assistance coach, and with his brother Jontay Porter.
The Porter brothers and Jeremiah Tilmon helped combine for a top five recruiting class in the country and had some fans dreaming of a miracle run. But most fans, myself included, simply wanted to get back to being relevant. I only had one goal for the Tigers this season, make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years.
The Tigers completed that goal. They made the big dance and put up a great effort in a game they only had eight total players available. They took the Tigers from the lowest it’s been in franchise history to respectability again in one season. The future looks very bright for the Tigers as well thanks to Porter Jr and Martin.
Porter Jr will be gone as he will be going to the NBA, it’s just a matter of when does he make it official. The big question is whether his brother Jontay will return. If he went to the NBA this year he’d probably be a late first round pick. But if he were to come back for one more season he could easily build off this solid season and be a lottery player. If he returns along side Tilmon, the Tigers would have one of the fiercest front courts in college basketball.
The previous three seasons of Mizzou basketball has been buried and a foundation of something better built on top. Martin has proven to be a solid recruiter and Tiger fans have shown if you give them a respectable product they will support it. Nobody is expecting national titles in Columbia, they want tourney bids and making some noise. This year they made the dance, next year they build on the foundation and make some noise.