When Drew Buggs decided to leave Hawaii for his final season of college basketball, he wasn’t allowed to visit schools that showed interest. Once he settled on Missouri and moved to Columbia in June, he had to wait about two months for all of his teammates to join him on campus. It would be five more weeks before the team could begin official practices on Sept. 17. There have been no secret scrimmages or preseason exhibitions against other schools, either. When Missouri takes the floor against Oral Roberts on Wednesday for its season-opening contest, it will mark the first time Buggs has played alongside all of his current teammates.
The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated life for virtually everyone associated with college athletics (and beyond). For Buggs, as he’s changed schools and sought to find a fit in Missouri’s crowded backcourt, the past eight months have been especially dizzying. Not that he’s using that as an excuse, however. Buggs said he’s had no trouble fitting in alongside returning point guards Xavier Pinson and Dru Smith.
“I feel like I complement them well,” Buggs said of Pinson and Smith. “I’m able to take a lot of pressure off them in terms of handling the ball, and just allow them to focus on moving without the ball and getting just open, easy shots. I feel like that’s my job, is just to get these guys on the team easier shots. … It’s been a shortened preseason, but I feel like it’s going well.”
That may sound like a pretty standard preseason quote, but if there’s one player who shouldn’t be bothered by an unusual offseason, it’s Buggs. Frankly, he’s been through much worse, like playing with a torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee as a senior in high school and losing his mother to breast cancer prior to last season.
Those experiences have shaped Buggs into the hard-nosed, vocal leader that the Missouri staff hopes can help propel the Tigers back to the NCAA Tournament.
************
Buggs’ last senior season started similarly to this one, with high hopes and a new role. He had played significant minutes during his first three years of high school, but as usual, the Long Beach Poly program had been loaded with talent. With players like former Oregon forward Jordan Bell and San Diego State guard K.J. Feagin a year ahead of him, Buggs said his senior season was the first time the team felt like his own.
On Nov. 27, 2015 — Buggs still remembers the date — during Poly’s third game of the season, Buggs jumped, landed and heard a pop. Right away, he knew the injury was severe. But when he went to the hospital, doctors told him that his right knee was too swollen to perform an MRI. It would take weeks before Buggs finally received a definitive diagnosis, and the news was about as bad as possible. He had torn the ACL and meniscus in his knee and fractured his right femur.
At that point, Buggs had already committed to Hawaii. With a scholarship in hand, his parents and coaches encouraged him to sit out the rest of the season and try to recover in time for the start of his college career. But doctors couldn’t perform surgery for a few months, at the earliest. Also, at that point, Hawaii had been handed a postseason ban for the 2016-17 season, Buggs’ freshman year, so he had already toyed with the idea of redshirting during his first season on campus.
So, Buggs posed his doctors a question: If he played basketball in the meantime, could he damage the knee further? Upon hearing he just needed to let the fracture heal, that his knee was “as bad as it can get,” Buggs immediately set his sights on returning in time for the playoffs.
“By the time I got an MRI and they figured out the diagnosis, I had been rehabbing the whole time, and the earliest surgery date from my doctor was still a couple months away, so I just asked the doctor if it could get any worse if I played, and he said not really, your knee is as bad as it can get,” Buggs explained. “So I finished out the year.”
For about three months, Buggs rehabbed his right leg daily. Donning a heavy knee brace, he returned to the court in late February. The injured knee all but eliminated Buggs’ explosiveness, but his high school coach, Shelton Diggs, said he was still able to contribute using his court vision and smarts. That aspect of his game has never left — Buggs dished a school-record 436 assists during his three years at Hawaii.
“Playing on that leg without all his athleticism and that stuff, he became more of a pass-first type person,” Diggs said. “It just translated ever since then.”
Buggs led Poly all the way to the state championship game, where it lost 48-45. He said the injury not only forced him to adjust the way he played on the court, but the way he approached the game, as well. That change, too, has never left him.
“I had felt like I was untouchable because I had worked so hard and it was finally my team, and then boom, my biggest injury of my career, right there,” Buggs said. “And so it kind of just taught me perseverance, not taking anything for granted and just being able to face any challenge that’s in front of me.”
That perseverance would be tested again soon.
************
While Buggs’ injury might have helped shape him into more of a pass-first player, his vision and leadership predate high school. He grew up in a “sports household.” His father, Andrew, played cornerback at Iowa State from 1989-1992. Not only did his dad constantly have sports on the television, he taught Buggs about the games, encouraging his son not to just watch for entertainment, but to study the technique of the best players and schemes of the best teams. By middle school, Buggs said he realized that he possessed a better understanding of his two favorite sports, football and basketball, than most kids his age. Naturally, that pulled him toward the two positions that make their respective teams go: quarterback on the football field and point guard on the hardwood.
Buggs’ mother, Mary, didn’t play sports in college, but he credits her for his athletic development, as well. Mary earned Iowa all-state honors in both basketball and softball during her high school days. Buggs’ “basketball side” comes from her, he said. And as Buggs spent more and more time watching film and decided he wanted to coach basketball one day, his mother made sure he didn’t have to wait until his playing days were over.
Buggs wasn’t yet 18, not technically allowed to coach. So, his mother signed up as the basketball coach at the middle school where Buggs’ younger sisters played. She managed the paperwork and kept everyone in line, but let her son lead most of the on-court instruction.
“She knew how much coaching meant to me, and so she took the job for me, and that just kind of goes to show you the mom I had,” Buggs said.
Buggs still hopes to be a coach once he finishes playing basketball. In fact, he pointed to that as one of the reasons he chose to transfer to Missouri, saying he sees things from the staff that he would like to one day emulate and wants to learn more from head coach Cuonzo Martin.
“Coach Martin is a coach that, he’s real set on his principles and he’s all about discipline, but also, as you guys will see this year, we kind of changed up playing, we play a little bit more fast, and I enjoy a coach that changes it up based on his personnel,” Buggs said. “And also, with everything going on, being able to play for an African-American coach was a big deal, too. There’s not too many in the college game, so being able to learn from somebody that’s like me, that was really important to me.”
Tragically, when Buggs begins this season at Missouri or eventually starts his (paid) coaching career, Mary won’t be able to see it. She got diagnosed with advanced breast cancer late in the summer of 2019. Buggs was away at Hawaii, so he said he never really grasped the severity of her condition until, in October, his father called him and told him to come home. Mary died on Oct. 18, 2019.
Diggs, who got to know Mary well, said her impact on Buggs is still visible.
“Drew is a giver,” Diggs said, “and she was the ultimate giver. She was willing to do anything for her family. And I can see that in Drew, like on the court, I can definitely see it. He’s always willing to do anything to help his team get the win, whether it’s dive for a loose ball, knock the shot, take the charge, even all the dirty stuff, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to help his team get the win without all the fanfare and the accolades and stuff.”
Buggs had experienced adversity before, including losing loved ones. But as you might expect, his mother’s passing had a greater impact on him. Despite the pain of losing her, however, he’s been determined not to let her death “sidetrack” him. He returned to Hawaii in time for the season-opener last year. If anything, losing his mother made him work even harder to be his best both on the basketball court and off it. Buggs said she’s “still with him,” and that’s what she would have wanted.
“It happened so sudden,” Buggs said. “I was away from home, I wasn't really aware, and so it just kind of really changed my whole perspective on life, just to not take anything for granted, ... never just assume stuff. And then it just pushed me to want to work harder and continue to be that example. I have three younger siblings, and just continue to be that example for them and continue to just work hard and make my mom proud.”
***********
Initially, when Buggs announced on Twitter that he would play his final college season at Missouri, some Tiger fans might have scratched their heads. It was no secret Martin and his staff were looking to add to the roster via the transfer market, but it seemed like if there was one position the Tigers should have felt good about, it would be point guard. Both Smith, who led the team in scoring and assists last season, and Pinson, who exploded for 17 points per game across the final 12 contests, are set to return. Throw in senior shooting guard Mark Smith, and it seemed fair to question how Buggs would fit into the backcourt rotation.
But Buggs isn’t concerned about finding a role. For one, he said, he’s already experienced playing 38 or 40 minutes a night, and he was okay with going somewhere he might play less if it gave him a chance to taste the NCAA Tournament. Plus, he believes he brings a different skillset to the table than Pinson and the Smiths.
“Dru and X are terrific, outstanding players, but they don’t bring the same things to the table that I bring,” Buggs said. “So I just want to focus on doing what I can do to help the team. Not trying to do what X does or trying to do what Dru does to impress the coaches, or whatever. Just do what I do and knowing that I help the team in some categories that we need help.”
Perhaps most importantly, no matter what his role looks like on the court, it would seem Buggs is a perfect fit for Martin and Missouri off of it. Above all else, Martin values toughness. A player who has played with a torn ACL and meniscus and persevered through the loss of his mother certainly fits that bill. Plus, both Martin and assistant coach Cornell Mann have mentioned Buggs as one of the team’s most vocal leaders, even just a few months after arriving on campus.
“He is an extension of coach on the floor,” Mann told PowerMizzou's 573 Report. “He does a great job when he’s not in — of course, when he is in, but he does a great job on the sidelines, talking to his teammates, helping them understand whatever we’re doing on the floor as a staff. He has some great leadership capabilities, and I think the guy, he’s not scared to say anything or talk to anybody and he handles his conversation toward anybody the right way.”
Martin frequently talks about not making excuses. After such an uneven offseason that left him little time to acclimate to his new team, Buggs could come up with plenty. But he assured that he’s picked up Missouri’s system, gelled with teammates and found his niche. After all, if two torn ligaments and the loss of his mother couldn’t keep him off the floor, Buggs isn’t going to let a disjointed practice schedule prevent him from doing everything he can to contribute during his lone year as a Tiger.
“I’m real battle-tested, and I know I’ve been in some dark places and dark times in my life,” Buggs said. “But I know one thing, that I’m never going to give up, and I have the mental fortitude to keep pushing. In a situation like this where it was a tough offseason and a tough stretch of practices right before games, not a whole lot of time, I can’t sit up here and make excuses on not having enough time or a proper offseason to get acclimated. I have to work with what I got and make the most of it and keep pushing.”
Get 25% off your first year and a $75 Nike or adidas gift card with our holiday specials
Talk about this story and more in The Tigers' Lair
Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video and live streaming coverage
