Reviewing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Traits of Mizzou's 2025-26 Team

Missouri basketball's 2025-2026 team was anything but straightforward.

The lows were low, but those created the need for what turned out to be thrilling highs. A first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament is in some ways both a fitting, but maybe a non-just finish for this team that they only have themselves to blame for.

To take a review on this team, Missouri basketball writers Joey Van Zummeren, Michael Stamps and Killian Wright gave their picks for a good, bad and ugly trait about the team.

Good

Jan 24, 2026; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers forward Mark Mitchell (25) celebrates after a buzzer beater to defeat the Oklahoma Sooners in overtime at Mizzou Arena. | Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Killian Wright: Trent Pierce’s breakout

Returning junior Trent Pierce missed Missouri’s entire non-conference slate with an injury, leaving his presence sorely missed by the team, as head coach Dennis Gates repeatedly reminded everyone during Missouri’s struggles. It was hard to imagine that Pierce, a 6.7 point per game scorer who shot 33% from 3-point range in 2024-25, would be the difference between a 43-point loss to Illinois and a win over Florida. But he was.

Pierce was reintroduced to Missouri’s lineup at the start of Southeastern Conference play, and was eventually brought into the starting lineup against Mississippi State. He averaged 10.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 47.8% from the field and 38.4% from 3-point range, all of which were career-highs.

Pierce entered the season as a largely-theoretical player who’d yet to round out the edges of his game, and exits it as one of the most complete players on the roster. From shooting, to defending, to finishing, Pierce checks all the boxes of a rotational forward in the SEC.

There’s a case to be made that the only person more valuable to Missouri’s offense than Pierce was none other than Mark Mitchell.

Michael Stamps: Mark Mitchell’s growth during senior season

Mitchell undoubtedly became the best player on Missouri’s roster by the time the 2025 season rolled around and he continued that evolution all the way through Missouri’s eventual March Madness loss to Miami. Even when he wasn’t able to score at the volume he was used to and that was expected of him, he had made himself a better defender and playmaker.

That being said, Mitchell scored in bulk like he hadn’t at any point in his career. He ended the regular season with two games, scoring 32 points while shooting above 50 percent from the field, while also going 40 percent from the perimeter during that stretch. There were only three games during this last season where he scored under 10 points, including Missouri’s 43-point loss to Illinois. He ended the season as an 18.3 point-per-game scorer, which was by far the best out of his four years in college.

Mitchell’s playmaking and distributing also evolved during his final collegiate season. He averaged 3.6 per game, which was over an assist and a half better than what he’d done in previous seasons. Against Texas A&M and Arkansas, he eclipsed the eight-assist mark, along with a nine-assist outing against Vanderbilt.

Joey Van Zummeren: Winning with their backs against the wall

Praising this team for their timely wins is a moot point considering they lost the one actual win-or-go-home game.

But there were several times throughout the season that the Tigers needed to earn multiple surprising wins to stay alive for the NCAA Tournament, and they did so just about every time. Missouri’s five Quad-1 wins undoubtedly were a key factor in the Tigers getting in despite a poor non-conference resume and questionable losses in SEC play.

In those wins, Missouri proved it could win in spite of its flaws still showing up. It makes the fact that the Tigers looked flat in the NCAA Tournament all the more confusing.

Bad

Dennis Gates reacts during Mizzou vs. Miami — Missouri head coach Dennis Gates reacts during the first half of an NCAA Tournament first-round game between Missouri and Miami on Friday, March 20, 2026, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. | (Cal Tobias/OnSI)

Van Zummeren: Fumbled opportunities late in the season

The actual product of this team in its last four games of the season wasn’t too far off from what it was for the rest of the 2026 calendar year. Place any four of those four performances across the rest of the schedule and they would make sense.

But around late February and into March, it looked like a team that was consistently inconsistent had finally found a way to let the lightning out of the bottle, the kind of consistency that would be needed for the postseason. The series of four games where Missouri took ranked wins over Vanderbilt and Tennessee, had a close loss to Arkansas and then blew out Mississippi State looked like a sign that the Tigers could compete with some of the best in the country, earn upset wins and blow out teams that they should.

But that stretch was followed by a loss to Oklahoma that showed Missouri was still prone to a bad night. The overtime loss to Arkansas was a brutal way to end the season.

Gates specifically looks back on the missed opportunity against Arkansas where a T.O. Barrett layup that would’ve won the game was unsuccessful as a moment that stuck with the Tigers.

“I think one possession changes a season,” Gates said following the NCAA Tournament loss. “We had an opportunity to win the game on two shots against Arkansas at home.”

At different points late in the second halves of the games, Missouri had a chance to win both of its tournament games.

“We were able to put our team in a position against Kentucky (in the SEC Tournament) to take a late lead, wasn't able to hold onto it.”

The losses not only sent Missouri into the postseason on the wrong foot with momentum, but lost them a considerable amount of seeding. On the day of the Arkansas loss, Missouri entered the day in prime position to earn a top-four seed and double bye in the SEC Tournament, and ended the day with the eight seed and one of the roughest paths in the conference.

Stamps: Rotational depth

Gates notoriously loves to empty his bench just about every game he coaches. Whether it's 12 players or 14, going down the line of each bench spot was never an issue for him.

Except for this past season.

In 2025, it became very clear that the players at the end of his bench would not live up to par with the style of basketball the Tigers were looking to play. The change phased players like Sebastian Mack, Luke Northweather and Nicholas Randall out of the rotation. The Tigers were down Annor Boateng and Jevon Porter due to injuries, as well.

This left three players to come off the bench for the Tigers: Anthony Robinson II, Jacob Crews and Trent Burns. Crews struggled to hit from the perimeter during the back half of the season, while Burns was still finding his footing as a college basketball player. Both had their moments, but were generally inconsistent.

Robinson was the most consistent of the bunch, but that consistency didn't roll around until the end of the season. Barrett removed Robinson from the starting lineup around the beginning of SEC play, but the roles once again reversed by the time the end of the season rolled around.

Wright: 3-point shooting

It’s impossible to discuss Missouri’s offense without acknowledging its woes from beyond the arc. While the shooting wasn’t always terrible, it was far from consistent and certainly not good enough to win Missouri many shootouts.

The Tigers actually held the sixth-best 3-point percentage in the SEC at 35%, but attempted the third-least shots from range with 685. Part of that problem lies in the Tigers’ lack of depth, particularly in offensive firepower. Only five Tigers shot 35% or better from distance, one of which was Luke Northweather, who didn’t play a minute in February or March.

Lack of 3-point shooting depth meant that if top shooters like Trent Pierce, Jayden Stone or Jacob Crews were having an off night — the latter two of which were having quite a few to close the season — the floor-spacing shifts from quality to abysmal.

This problem could flow into the 2026-27 season as well, given that three of Missouri’s five players to shoot over 35% from 3-point range have now exhausted their eligibility: Crews, Stone and Mitchell. Pierce, Northweather and Robinson are the only above-30% shooters with remaining eligibility.

Ugly

Mar 20, 2026; St. Louis, MO, USA; Miami (FL) Hurricanes guard Tre Donaldson (3) shoots for the basket during the second half against the Missouri Tigers during a first round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Enterprise Center. | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

Van Zummeren: Gates’ lowest-producing transfer class yet

Unlike the 2024-2025 team, I’m not sure that this year’s team finished too far behind its ceiling considering the roster. Whether it was an overevaluation of the returning players, missing out on other players in the portal or just missing on the transfers actually brought in, this roster wasn’t built to go much further.

Out of the five transfers Missouri brought in, only two — Stone and Shawn Phillips Jr. — contributed through conference play. Jevon Porter suffered a leg injury in December that he never returned from. Sebastian Mack and Luke Northweather were removed from the lineups early into conference play.

The first dominoes of this season’s demise started falling in April 2025, not March 2026.

Stamps: The point guard dilemma

Having two guys who could start at one position isn't exactly the ugliest issue to have, but picking between the two is.

Robinson was supposed to emerge as an elite nationwide point guard in 2025. That didn't happen. He was then replaced by Barrett, who looked like the future at the spot for quite a while. He eventually came back down to earth.

No rule or regulation states that Gates can't keep both Robinson and Barrett. They both certainly could return next season to form a fascinating guard trio alongside Jason Crowe Jr. That being said, now that both have a taste of being a starting-level point guard in the SEC, it seems realistic that they'll both demand that time of playing time.

That won't be an easy decision if that happens to be the case, but only if.

Wright: The future at center

Shawn Phillips Jr.’s 2025-26 campaign is by far the best by any center to play for Missouri under Dennis Gates, and even the senior transfer’s season was flawed. He averaged 7.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 20.5 minutes per game, battling with foul trouble throughout the season. The job for Missouri's centers was simple: Protect the rim, grab rebounds and finish lobs.

But the job that seemed relatively simple to ask wasn’t such a simple fix when Phillips was off the court, which will be the case in the 2026-27 season, as Phillips exhausted his final season of eligibility. His backups, Trent Burns, Nicholas Randall and Luke Northweather, struggled immensely with consistency.

Randall shared the foul trouble-gene with Phillips, while Burns and Northweather’s lack of mobility often plagued them. Gates has brought in a 7-footer in each of the last three portal cycles, each being an improvement upon the last — Phillips followed suit of Josh Gray, who replaced Connor Vanover.

Gates will once again need to dip into the transfer portal funds to land a quality starting center, and perhaps even a power forward, now that Mitchell is gone.

Follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook , YouTube, Blue Sky and Instagram for the latest news.