Even after doing the unimaginable, Missouri finished this season with a sour taste in its mouth.
The Tigers went from a winless conference campaign in Dennis Gates' second year as head coach to winning a conference tournament game and receiving the sixth seed in the NCAA Tournament a season later.
But losing three out of their final four regular-season games, the Tigers stumbled into postseason play before being handled by Drake on Thursday. Missouri will now turn fully to the NCAA transfer portal, which opens Monday and runs through April 22.
With the coming implementation of revenue sharing and NIL changes, basketball will receive a cutdown to a 15-player roster limit, with all 15 eligible to receive scholarships. The Tigers had 18 players on roster this season with three walk-ons. So essentially, the walk-on spots are being removed.
Remaining eligibility
Missouri has 10 scholarship players retaining eligibility from this past season. After missing most of the year with a lower-leg injury and not playing in a single game, freshman center Trent Burns became eligible for a redshirt.
In accordance with a new NCAA ruling, Tennessee-Martin transfer guard Jacob Crews received a waiver for an extra year of eligibility after spending a season at junior college Daytona State. Crews said Wednesday he will return to Missouri for his final year of eligibility.
Aidan Shaw announced he entered the transfer portal Tuesday. The forward spent three seasons with Missouri, looking to use his final year of eligibility elsewhere.
Out of eligibility
Missouri said goodbye to Tamar Bates, Josh Gray, Caleb Grill, Tony Perkins and Marques Warrick. All six Tigers transferred into the program. Bates and Grill played two seasons while Gray, Perkins and Warrick all spent one year in Columbia.
Biggest needs
Shooters
Losing Grill, Bates and Warrick takes a significant amount of the 3-point shooting ability off the roster.
The Tigers still have Crews, plus Robinson and Pierce made some strides as deep shooters this season, but adding an extra 3-and-D wing or two would be very helpful.
Depth guards
That's also a whole lot of guards leaving the roster.
With Robinson, Barrett and Boateng returning, that's a good base to start off with, but Gates likes to run a lot of guards out there throughout the game. There will need to be a few coming in, and probably more than one with a significant amount of experience to help guide the young guys.
A scoring 5
Gray was a solid addition to the Tigers this season, his rebounding came in very handy at times. But it's no secret the Tigers lacked a scoring presence in the interior at times.
Adding a center who can score and help guide Marshall and Burns into their college careers would be very helpful. If he could also serve as a rim protector on defense, that would be huge.
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