Mizzou Basketball: Jontay Porter injury another setback for Missouri

ST LOUIS, MO - MARCH 08: Jontay Porter #11 of the Missouri Tigers dribbles the ball against the Georgia Bulldogs during the second round of the 2018 SEC Basketball Tournament at Scottrade Center on March 8, 2018 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

It never seems like much goes in Mizzou basketball’s favor and some awful news surfaced on late Sunday night. Sophomore Jontay Porter is out for the season after tearing his ACL in a scrimmage.

Poor Missouri fans. An offseason of looking forward to what the 2018-2019 season had in store for one of the best players on the team and now that’s not going to happen, as Jontay Porter is out for the season after tearing his ACL, according to Alex Schiffer and Peter Baugh of The Kansas City Star.

Porter made the decision to leave high school early and enroll at Missouri to play with his brother (Michael Porter Jr.). As we all know, Michael barely played last season due to injury, but did get some playing time in the NCAA Tournament.

Michael Porter Jr. opted to leave Columbia to enter the 2018 NBA Draft where he was drafted by the Nuggets in the first round. Jontay Porter decided to stay at Missouri for at least another season and now he’ll be watching from the sidelines.

Per The Kansas City Star,

"With the 2018-19 season about to start, Porter was projected as a top-10 NBA Draft pick. The 2019 draft is considered a weaker one than last year’s, which could keep Porter in the first round, and a knee injury, even one involving the ACL, is less of a red flag than back surgery."

Even with the injury, Porter could still decide to enter the draft after this season, but one would have to think he’d return for his junior year. He returned to Columbia this year for a reason and that’s because he just wasn’t “pro ready” quite yet.

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The injury now puts a huge dent in Missouri’s roster this season because he was one of their big men. That role will now fall solely to Jeremiah Tilmon, who had his struggles as a freshman in the 2017-2018 season.

It’s hard not to feel for Missouri Tigers fans. Time after time this fan base gets their hopes up only to have them quickly wiped away. Michael Porter committing to Mizzou last year was a HUGE deal, but then he played all of two minutes in his lone season with the Tigers.

MU fans were looking forward to watching Jontay Porter improve on the court this year and now that won’t happen. Hopefully Porter can get healthy and make the right decision when it comes to whether to return to school or not next year.

Mizzou basketball was picked to finish eighth in ESPN’s SEC preseason poll, but that was before the injury to Jontay Porter occurred. They could fall much lower now.

The good news is that this Missouri team showed us more than we expected a year ago, so they’re able to defy the odds. Maybe the Tigers will surprise us.

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