Mizzou Basketball Roster Breakdown: Spacing and Shooting

Dennis Gates and the Missouri Tigers have assembled a fascinating roster for the 2025-26 season.

It features new pieces, along with some returning ones that appear to be potential cornerstones of the program. There is clear NBA talent on this roster as well, with clear offensive and defensive ceilings.

This should be a fascinating offensive team, especially when it comes to shooting from the perimeter, and how they'll inevitably space the floor to find and create those shots. The Tigers were the No. 40 best 3-point shooting team in the country last season and will look to carry that momentum into this season.

On paper, the Tigers will have some progress to make as a shooting team coming into this season. If you were to take the individual perimeter shooting stats of each returner from last season, as well as the perimeter shooting stats from last year for the incoming transfers, it would add up to 31.9% (233-of-729) from outside.

There are some intriguing players who have the potential to be great shooters, especially on the transfer side of things. West Virginia and Detroit Mercy transfer Jayden Stone attempted just under 200 3-point shots in the 2023-24 season, which is an extremely high volume.

Loyola Marymount transfer Jevon Porter attempted 152 shots and made just under 32% of them. That's another valuable addition to the group of shooters Gates is building.

Below is a list of how the Tigers shot last year, as well as how the incoming transfers did.

3-point percentage of returning Tigers

G Anthony Robinson II: 40% (50 attempts)
G Jacob Crews: 33.6% (119 attempts)
F Trent Pierce: 33% (97 attempts)
F Mark Mitchell: 26% (50 attempts)
G Annor Boateng: 10% (10 attempts)
G T.O. Barrett: 0% (2 attempts)
C Trent Burns (Redshirt)

3-point percentage of transfer Tigers

F Luke Northweather: 34% (50 attempts)
F Jevon Porter: 31.6% (152 attempts)
G Sebastian Mack: 31.4% (70 attempts)
G Jayden Stone: 31.2% (199 attempts, 2023-24 season)
C Shawn Philips Jr: 0% (0 attempts)

These are the pieces Missouri is working with, and there's plenty there to believe this will be a just fine 3-point shooting team. There will be a few keys to success to be a good shooting team that they will have to rely on, however. If these things aren't clicking, it could spiral.

The first of those keys is the jump that junior Trent Pierce must take. The 6-foot-10 sharpshooting forward took a leap as a sophomore, but still has a ways to go to graze the ceiling many think he has. He showed he could be semi-efficient from the perimeter, but could stand to get that number up to 36 or 37%.

Missouri's offensive spacing will significantly upgrade if Pierce improves his ability to put the ball on the floor and attack the rim. He showed glimpses of it last season and is a decent finisher around the rim, getting there just seems to be the hard part.

Jacob Crews also needs to continue to shoot at the level he did last season, or get even better. If he can reach the 40% mark and become Missouri's most reliable perimeter shotmaker, that would be a dream come true for the point guards on this roster.

This doesn't solely rely on players making more shots. Pressure on the rim and getting into the middle of an opposing defense creates outside looks, which will fall into the hands of Anthony Robinson II, Sebastian Mack and T.O. Barrett.

Robinson was good at this last season, so there's no reason to expect he won't be this year. He has a great feel for the game as a passer, and operates best when he can get to his mid-range spots. As the season progressed last year, he got better at passing out of those spots. He should only become more composed and calm in those spots, as well, while also attracting more defensive attention.

Ideally, Robinson could take some of that pressure off Mack and Barrett, but they will still be called on to do it. Robinson can't be the only lead guard on the team to create space by attracting defenders around the rim.

Lastly, players like Porter, Luke Northweather and Mark Mitchell — the mobile forwards on this team expected to play the most — should help the spacing if they can improve their shooting. Mitchell, at the bare minimum, needs to shoot above 30% from outside on more than 50 attempts, especially if he wants to improve his NBA chances.

It's important to know that Mitchell's main purpose isn't to knock down threes, but it does seem like the glaring empty hole in his game at the moment. If he can become an efficient 3-point shooter, Mitchell could evolve into the all-conference player people expect him to be.

Northweather may not play a ton of minutes, but if he can come in and hit one triple a game, that would certainly be helpful. Porter also needs to improve his numbers, but don't expect him to attempt 152 outside shots this season. Unlike Mitchell, Porter will be expected to make them at a high efficiency, so 31.6% or worse won't cut it.

All in all, there are enough pieces on this team to believe that they will shoot the ball well. Creeping up to the 37% mark may be a stretch, but there's no reason they can't be in the 35% to 36% range.