The biggest difference in Missouri’s basketball team this season will likely come on the wing. Gone are Namon Wright and Jakeenan Gant, both to transfers. In their place are freshman Willie Jackson and, eventually, junior Jordan Barnett.
The Tigers return their point guard in Terrence Phillips, their leading scorer in Kevin Puryear and their likely shooting guard combo of K.J. Walton and Cullen Van Leer. But if Missouri is to get major contributions from its seven incoming players, Barnett and Jackson look to be the most likely sources, especially for the team that lacks much in the way of size.
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“I’m more concerned with rebounding than I am size. I’m more concerned about guys who can go get the ball on the boards,” head coach Kim Anderson said. “Willie Jackson’s got the nose for going to get the ball. Some guys you practice, go get offensive rebounds, go get it, go get it, go get it. Willie just does it naturally. To me, better rebounding is more important than bigger size.”
“For one, knowing your angles,” Jackson said of the ability to rebound. “Got to have the will to want to rebound. You can’t just come in here like, I’m going to grab 20 rebounds. That’s not how I approach it. I come in wanting to rebound. If you want to rebound, then you’re gonna have rebounds.”
Jackson averaged 14 rebounds a game as a senior at Garfield Heights High School. He led the Tigers with 38 rebounds in four games in Italy in August. He can score, but he’s not a scorer.
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“Playing defense, number one and being a leader when we’re on defense,” Jackson said. “I come in, they look for me to rebound, offensive rebound and make my guy that I’m guarding, basically give him hell. I’m not that go-to guy, but I can come off a screen, I can hit open shots. I’m ready. I’ll just be ready at all times.”
Barnett won’t be eligible until December 17th against Eastern Illinois after transferring from Texas in the middle of last season. Missouri will count on him heavily early on.
“It’s definitely potentially different,” Anderson said of a roster with Barnett. “He’s played at the highest level so he understands probably as much as anybody how hard you have to play when you start playing. The one thing I’ve been encouraging him is that he needs to dominate practices. He needs to step his game up in practice because he has a tendency to hide sometimes. I’ve told him this: You should know that Jordan Barnett was at every practice.”
The two are both characterized as “big threes or small fours” by Anderson. They could sub in for each other, but could also be on the floor at the same time frequently.
“I think they can play together. I think there’s so many combinations that you could use,” the coach said. “Jordan’s a better shooter than Willie, Willie’s a better driver than Jordan, but they’re guys who can play on the wing or they can play kind of a power forward spot, maybe a high post spot.”
The versatility of that duo, combined with the fact that Anderson is as close as he has been in three years to a full roster, gives the Tigers at least some hope of more options.
“There’s always the option of redshirting somebody. I don’t see that right now,” Anderson said. “But I think that we do have kind of a full roster. I’ve always been in favor of competition. I’ve always felt like if you’ve got to come every day and work hard and practice hard it’s going to make you better. I think we’ll have 12 guys who can compete to play.”
The team started practice on Sunday and early on, Anderson is encouraged by what he has seen from the seven new faces on his team.
“They don’t always go to the right place at the right time, but man, they try. They play hard. They play with a lot of aggressiveness I think. I think for a couple of days it’s been good,” he said. “You play new guys versus old guys and it’s pretty competitive, but you can tell the old guys they know where to be at a certain time and their offense is better.”
And it will likely be the “old guys” (the quotes indicate the relative fallacy in calling sophomores old guys) who really drive where the 2016-17 Tigers can go. While Jackson, Barnett and the newcomers offer change and optimism, it is the sophomore class of Phillips, Puryear, Van Leer and Walton that has been lauded as the foundation of Anderson’s program since arriving a little more than a year ago.
“I think the success of the culture of this program is on those guys,” Anderson said. “I think those four guys, it’s important that they’re good. I don’t know that they’ll be the best players scoring wise, but I think that is the core group that hopefully has some success and be around for two more years.”
The only constant in Anderson’s first two years has been change. This year’s roster offers the hope of continuity. If that continuity is to come to fruition, it will likely be preceded by significant improvement. The Tigers open the season on November 13th against Alabama A&M.
