How Mizzou's Jayden Stone Turned His ‘Trial Into Testimony’

It takes Jayden Stone a second to recall exactly what the tattoo on his left bicep says, but he knows it's a message that has guided the last decade of his life. He grabs his arm through his long-sleeve shirt to remember, then reads it off.

“God doesn't give us the people that we want,” the tattoo reads. “He gives us the people that you need, to hurt you, to hold you, to heal you, to leave you, to love you and to make you the person you are today.”

In his journey from moving to Australia at 15-years-old to becoming a key player for Missouri this season, Stone’s confidence has been smashed. He’s built up great opportunities just to lose it all, then built it back up again. He’s suffered an injury that he thought would end his career. He’s been an emotional and physical nomad.

“I've slept on the floors like this,” Stone said, pointing to the cold, concrete floor outside the locker room at Mizzou Arena. “I've had nothing. I've spent Christmases alone, birthdays by myself. Just wandering around being senseless. Feeling homeless in a sense.”

The fact that his jagged path has led him to being one of the best scorers on a Southeastern Conference team contending for a spot in the NCAA Tournament doesn’t make much sense at all. Through that journey, he’s come to accept and cherish the fact that every failure, every moment of isolation has been part of forming who he’s become.

“I agree with the paradox and the paradigm of when one thing's taken away, another thing is placed in if you allow it to be,” Stone said. “Trial can turn to your testimony, your destruction can be your dominion and your power, and that's what it's all about. Whenever I was humbled severely by life, I took the lesson subtly.”

A 7,000-Mile Leap of Faith

Every two weeks, Stone sets aside nearly four hours to watch “Lawrence of Arabia,” David Lean’s 1962 epic. Stone sees it as a representation of his path from Australia to America in pursuit of a dream.

In the film, a naively daring British Army officer, T.E. Lawrence, is sent to Arabia to work with Arab tribes in the revolt against the Ottoman Empire. He’s eager to do something more than work at the intelligence office in Egypt, where he was overlooked.

Like Lawrence, Stone wanted a different environment and different opportunities making the decision as a teenager to leave everything he knew, moving from Perth, Australia, to the United States to pursue a basketball career.

“You see yourself in it when he came over, out of his comfort zone and wanted something different,” Stone said of the movie. “While all the soldiers were like, ‘Oh, we're happy just to sit back in Egypt and liaise,’ he wanted to be out in the action.”

For Lawrence, it was quickly apparent that his confidence doesn’t align with his preparedness or knowledge of the challenges he’ll face. When he’s first presented with the task to go to Arabia, he says “Of course I’m the man for the job” before asking “What’s the job?”

Stone had the same paradoxical feelings of confidence in himself to figure it out, while also not having any idea of what it would really be like. Despite even being cut from several teams in his hometown of Perth, he dove head first into a pool without knowing how deep the pool was or what was even in it.

“It was weird, because it was like I didn't know what to think,” Stone said. “I didn't know, I just went. It was kind of a blind sided. It was very translucent — the end and the resolution was visible, but it didn't feel attainable, but it did. And I just tossed and turned with that. … I didn't really know what I was walking into, but I just wanted to chase for the glory of what America could be. So I thought I can play high school basketball out here.”

Stone wrestled with the decision, even as he began to find success on the court, wondering if it was worth it to leave everything behind.

“I think when I first came here, I was always looking back with a sense of nostalgia about all the good things back home — my family, my mom, my grandma, my sister, great memories,” Stone said. “Had a brilliant life growing up. Everything I could ever ask for.”

He still pulls on the nostalgia from that time, connecting with those memories by listening to the music he’d listen to with his grandparents while growing up, using the voices of Nat King Cole, Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra to make it feel like home. His grandmother was a librarian and would bring home classic novels, making a young Stone “well-cultured.”

Calhoun's Jamichael Boone defends against Sacred Heart's Jayden Stone in AHSAA final four action at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Ala. on Monday February 25, 2019 | Mickey Welsh / Advertiser

In America, Stone had to learn the culture of many different places. He moved from California to Alabama and then Wichita, Kansas, in his preps career. Though he had family with him at some points, at others, where he slept was dependent on which of his friends or teammates would lend him a place. He frequently felt isolated. For the most part, the only constant in his life was himself.

“It just became a journey of going from different state to state, trying to find any avenue or crevice to play,” Stone said. “I think just the constant moving to a different state after the next, finding no familiarity and no sense of home, I had to become my sense of home.”

Fighting for Opportunity

For his senior year, Stone played at Sunrise Christian Academy, a preps basketball powerhouse in Wichita. He worked his way up to become a composite three-star prospect, earning offers from Auburn and Illinois, amongst others, before choosing Grand Canyon.

In his two seasons at Grand Canyon, he had minimal opportunities, averaging 10.7 minutes and 3.4 minutes per game across those two seasons.

“I didn't have any patience at GCU,” Stone said. “I wanted it right away, but they didn't play me, and I was so discouraged, and it was just really rough.”

Dec 1, 2020; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Grand Canyon Antelopes guard Jayden Stone (22) shoots a jumper against the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils during a game at GCU Arena in Phoenix. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-Arizona Republic Ncaa Basketball Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils At Grand Canyon Antelopes | Rob Schumacher/The Republic via Imagn Content Services, LLC

If the lack of playing time fractured Stone’s confidence, it was absolutely shattered by what he was asked to do after the second season. The coaching staff asked him to give up his jersey and his scholarship to instead be a manager and clean the players’ shoes.

It’s a wound that cut deep and has remained open for Stone. Even when he was the 22nd-best scorer in the country at Detroit Mercy, or now as he’s proven himself capable at the highest level of competition in college basketball, the effects have lingered.

“I lost all my confidence,” Stone said of the moment. “I still don't think I'm better than anybody because of that moment. And sometimes, it still hurts. And I get really emotional about it because I still don't think I'm good. I still fight that all the time. Every game, when you're seeing me out there, you're not seeing a man that's just like, ‘Oh, he's so confident.’ No, I'm actually scared. Actually, I don't think I'm better than anyone, but I'm fighting because I've been given an opportunity and I don't want to let it up. It's desperation and it's a fight for God.”

From that desperation, Stone transferred from Grand Canyon to Detroit Mercy, where he would spend a paradoxical two years of being a good player on a team with ridiculously bad results.

In the 2022-23 season, the Titans finished a few games below .500 at 14-19. Stone averaged 13.9 points through the first 13 games of that season, but was ruled academically ineligible for his second season.

The next season, several other players were ruled academically ineligible, causing the Titans’ options to run really thin. The team finished the season 1-31.

But Stone was a Lamborghini left sitting in a broken-down shed. He averaged 20.8 points, 2.7 assists and 5.6 rebounds. He credits Mike Davis, his head coach at Detroit Mercy, for transforming the story of his career from a failed prospect to an elite scorer.

“Coach Davis at Detroit saved my career, and I want that on the record,” Stone said. “Because I was going down a road where there wasn't really a way out of the stigma that could’ve been permanently wafting over my name was there, and he saved it in every capacity. He's brilliant.”

Nov 10, 2023; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Detroit Mercy Titans guard Jayden Stone (14) attempts a three-point basket against Cincinnati Bearcats forward Ody Oguama (33) in the second half at Fifth Third Arena. | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

What Stone proved with Detroit Mercy earned him a chance for a step up, taking the opportunity to transfer to West Virginia. But in a preseason practice, Stone suffered a head injury that kept him out for the entire season.

The effects of the injury were brutal. He lost feeling in the left side of his body for weeks and dealt with sleep complications.

Though a medical redshirt gave Stone another year of eligibility, he thought it would be the end of his basketball career.

Initially, Lawrence’s journey to Arabia ended that way. After being humiliated and physically and mentally tortured as a prisoner of war, Lawrence decides to give in and succumb to reality. He returns to the British offices in Egypt, no longer feeling like a hero, but a failure.

Stone believed his journey in America would end in a similar way.

“There was this sense of melancholy, because it was like he had to go home at the end of the day,” Stone said of Lawrence’s act of giving in. “And I always thought I'd go back home (from) America with a ‘I gave it my best shot.’"

Finding Home

Feb 14, 2026; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers guard Jayden Stone (17) hypes up the crowd during a game against the Texas Longhorns at Mizzou | Sam Simon/MissouriOnSI

Lawrence’s guiding philosophy was “Nothing is written,” claiming that fate, no matter the circumstances, is not decided. That even when a conflict is out of our control, we hold the pen to write our conclusion.

Lawrence forgets this when he gives in. He begged not to be sent back to Arabia after his return. But the British Army sees the value he brings and decides to send him back. There, he helps to lead a successful overtaking of Damascus, using the same leadership skills he thought he had lost. It’s paired with a changed perspective after seeing the violence of the war.

For Stone, his mother reminded him he too could write the next part of his story.

“But my mom was always telling me, your story can be written in success and victory,” Stone said.

When it seemed like the ending was written for Stone, Dennis Gates and Kyle Smithpeters came calling.

Gates started his head coaching career at Cleveland State in the Horizon League from 2019-22, and still frequently scouts the conference for talent. The league’s second-leading scorer in the 2023-24 season caught Gates’ attention.

When the Missouri coaching staff called Stone, they didn’t bring skepticism about what lingering effects the head injury might’ve had on him. They instead had a focus on the person behind the player. They had the same belief that Stone had in himself to become the player he has this season for Missouri.

After starting the season as a spark off the bench, Stone has become a vital piece of the Missouri starting lineup, averaging 14.9 points, 2.1 assists and five rebounds per game.

“When I was in the transfer pool, I knew I could do what I was doing now,” Stone said. “I knew it at the back of my mind. But I knew they (other coaching staffs) didn't think that. They didn’t. And not one time did any of this (Missouri) staff mention about my injury, about me being out, not one time. They didn’t talk about it. … And I was really grateful for that. I use that every day to show my sense of appreciation and gratitude.”

For Gates, he didn’t view the injury as a setback or a concern. Instead, he saw it as another part of the journey that has formed Stone into the player he has turned into for Missouri.

“You got to go through life experiences and fail and, obviously, get rejected. The journey is what helps us in the moment,” Gates said. “…Sometimes, you got to go through something and have a story and a journey to really appreciate the day-to-day. And I think he (Stone) has the endurance, mentally, physically and emotionally, to push us how he needs to.”

Feb 14, 2026; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Dennis Gates talks with guard Jayden Stone (17) and guard Anthony Robinson II (0) against the Texas Longhorns during the first half of the game at Mizzou Arena. | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Gates has tried to build a program out of using proven resilience as strength, seeing prior struggles not as an indicator of someone’s weakness, but instead seeing their journey to overcome it as an indicator of what they’re capable of.

“These young men, in their life beyond basketball, has seen things that require them to be resilient, to get through and get to where they are now,” Gates said. “It's just a reflection of our environment, being able to put them in the right spots, but also coach them in my unique way, our staff, but also our culture. I think when you understand the big picture, you are able to have a part-whole method or philosophy where you just stay where you are, not get too far ahead, not too far behind.”

The experience of having the game of basketball taken away from him potentially forever with the head injury gave Stone a renewed appreciation for having it back in his life.

“You can see the love he has for the game every day, that he laces up his sneakers, how he attends to his teammates and vice versa,” Gates said of Stone.” I think, ultimately, his experiences and his basketball experience is what's going to help him.”

What’s added to that is Stone, after a decade in the United States, finally finding a sense of home with Missouri. Gates believes that focusing on the mental aspect off-the-court would translate to better play on it. This year, Stone has displayed that theory.

“I think just the unequivocal belief in getting the best out of the man first,” Stone said of the difference being at Missouri has made for him in an interview with the SEC Network. “... Coach (Gates) cared more about what was happening off the court, putting the best into my mindset, and that obviously allowed me to play as consistently and be as free on the court as I can be.”

Stone’s prior experiences have informed how he leads and connects with teammates. From struggling to adjust to a new environment, not having playing time or dealing with injury, he has first-hand experience to help teammates overcome similar situations.

“I've already been the lowest of lows, when no one cared about me and I was on the end of the bench and didn't want to be there,” Stone said. “… I've seen it. I've experienced every facet and corner and crevice of life. So I know what it's like.”

Stone himself is now able to look back at his own journey with grace, even the worst moments.

For situations he could look back on with anger, he’s gained a different perspective by reflecting on how he hasn’t been perfect. He recognizes his own faults, and how even those moments were met with compassion.

That includes the situation at Grand Canyon under head coach Bryce Drew.

“I just think I was young, but I still thank him (Drew) for everything, and if I saw him today, I'd be so grateful,” Stone said. “There's no animosity. You can't do that in life. You can't be ‘Ah, GCU is was the worst experience, and I hate it, I didn't even play, screw them.’ Can't do that. Because there's times where my mom could say, ‘Well, I didn't like how Jayden was as a son to me,’ … She didn't do that. Always returned with love.”

When looking back at the start of his journey, Stone even still questions if it will all pay off with basketball. But he believes his purpose has expanded larger than basketball.

“I lost a lot of the basketball part of it,” Stone said. “I mean, it was all about God. I thought he was placing me for something greater than just sports. He said, ‘Jayden, I don't need a basketball player. I don't need an NBA player. I'm enough of myself that the testimony of Christ is greater than anything you could ever do for me.’”

As for the next step of his journey, he has no reason this will be the first predictable or straightforward part of it.

“I still don't know about this whole thing,” Stone said. “I don't know where it ends. I don't know whether I'll make it to the NBA. I don't know whether I'll play professional. I mean, people are telling me I will, and I've been given a great opportunity. But you never know.”

The last decade of Stone’s life has been defined by “you never know.” The turns he’s taken have proven that nothing is written in stone.