How Trent Burns' Injury Impacts Mizzou's Depth: The Extra Point

After a recent injury to an intriguing, young Missouri center, there's been a shakeup with some depth on the roster.

Mar 19, 2025; Wichita, KS, USA; Missouri Tigers center Trent Burns (7) attempts to balance basketball as a drill during a practice session at Intrust Bank Arena. | Nick Tre. Smith-Imagn Images

Missouri Tigers on SI basketball reporter Michael Stamps breaks down what the injury to Trent Burns means for the Tigers moving forward.

Welcome to Missouri Tigers On SI's "Extra Point," a video series featuring the site's Missouri beat writers. Multiple times a week, the writers provide analysis on a topic concerning the Tigers or the landscape of college sports.

Missouri Tigers' center Trent Burns will have to wait a little longer to be fully healthy, after it was announced on Thursday that Burns would miss some time after having his right-foot stress fracture flare up once again.

“We all decided that surgery was the best option for his uninterrupted contributions this season," head coach Dennis Gates said in a statement. "His health is our top priority and we know this will only be a small disruption in a great basketball career."

The injury to Burns should also cause some shake-ups in Missouri's depth at the center spot, with other ripples flowing through the rest of the roster. Though Burns wasn't expected to start for the Tigers, his injury could cause some changes.

Missouri's big-man depth has questions with or without Burns. It's unclear what Gates will do with his plethora of big forwards and centers, including Mark Mitchell, Jevon Porter, Shawn Phillips Jr. and more.

Phillips appears to be primed to start at the center position with Mitchell at the power forward spot and Porter on the bench. Porter could be the first man off the bench at the power forward and center spot while Burns is out.

The Tigers also have Oklahoma Luke Northweather and true freshman Nicholas Randall, who can step in and play the center position, but neither of them is exactly ready to take a step up like that. Northweather hasn't played more than 15 minutes per game in his first two years in college, while Randall is a true freshman.

Porter will assume more responsibility than initially imagined if Burns is out to start the season. Randall and Northweather will also likely see the court than initially thought, but not before Porter.

Burns can absolutely be a contributing player on this roster if he's healthy. The surgery Burns underwent on Tuesday seems to have been precautionary so he can be available for the most important parts of Missouri's non-conference schedule.

"We saw in the spring and summer how much of an impact he can have with our program and we look forward to his return to the court during our non-conference season," Burns said.