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Pickett, Brazile enter transfer portal

On Dennis Gates' first day on the job, he was asked his first priority as Missouri's basketball coach.

“I’ve got to re-recruit the roster, get to know them, they get to know me,” Gates said.

That work begins now. Senior Javon Pickett and freshman Trevon Brazile are in the transfer portal as of Tuesday afternoon. A school source confirmed the entry of both players, but also stated that the paperwork usually takes a few days to process. That means Brazile and Pickett initiated the transfer process prior to meeting Gates and perhaps even prior to knowing he would be the next coach.

Gates spoke with the team on Tuesday morning prior to meeting with the media at noon in the practice gym at Mizzou Arena.

"I just allow them to see who I was as a person, as a man, as a head coach here," Gates said. "It’s sometimes territorial or even tough to look at because I'm, I'm a coach who's coming from somewhere else. Right? We’re in transition. When young people go through a transition you got to protect their hearts.

"I wanted them to ask me questions. I wanted those guys to be able to control the environment because too often as adults, we don't listen to young people in those traumatic traumatic stages. Trauma for anybody. We have to pay attention to it. We have to listen."

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Pickett has played four years at Missouri and went through Senior Day ceremonies prior to Missouri's final regular season game. However, because the 2020-21 season did not count toward anyone's eligibility in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pickett still has one year of eligibility remaining should he choose to use it. When last asked if he would play a fifth year, Pickett said he was undecided and hadn't given it much thought.

Entering the portal wouldn't necessarily mean that Pickett had decided to use the fifth year, but it does give him the ability to hear from other programs and decide to use that year, whether it be at Missouri or somewhere else. Pickett led Missouri in minutes and averaged a career-best 11.1 points per game this season.

Brazile missed Missouri's first eight games after dealing with an undisclosed health issue prior to the start of the regular season. He played in the final 25 games of his freshman season, starting 23 of them. He averaged 6.6 points and 5.1 rebounds and led the Tigers with 48 blocked shots, nearly two per game. That figure ranked third in the SEC behind Auburn's Walker Kessler and Florida's Colin Castleton.

Anton Brookshire, a Springfield product and a freshman like Brazile, entered the portal last week. Fellow freshman Sean Durugordon entered mid-season. In addition, signee Aidan Shaw has been released from his letter of intent and will explore his options.

Pickett, Brazile and Shaw are all candidates to return to Mizzou, but their new head coach will have to begin his recruiting efforts immediately.

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