This Kansas Transfer Could Easily Land With Missouri

After just one season at Kansas, Bryson Tiller entered the transfer portal as one of the highest-ceiling prospects in college basketball. His short list includes some expected schools – Arizona, Miami and Michigan – and, oddly enough, Missouri.

Yep, Dennis Gates and the Tigers are making a play for the former Jayhawk after the 6-foot-10 power forward entered the portal on Monday. As a freshman and a former five-star Bill Self recruit, Tiller started 31 different games for 7.9 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.

It makes sense there’d be a recruiting frenzy for Tiller in the portal, but Mizzou?

The Tigers, ending the season 20-13 overall, finished eighth in the SEC and they’d ultimately miss the second weekend as the No. 10 seed falling to No. 7 Miami (Florida) 80-66 in the NCAA Tournament last month. Missouri guards Anthony Robinson III, Sebastian Mack and T.O. Barrett are entering the portal.

Missouri’s defining big is not yet on the roster, and Tiller is a young, hungry option to boost his frontcourt if Gates can hack it. Tiller is set to visit Columbia, Missouri, as part of his recruiting schedule, but one would have to expect a sizeable NIL package to land such a transfer with three years of eligibility remaining.

It’d be an especially sour reality for Kansas, too, considering Tiller was starting big-time minutes for Self, and looked to be something special had he returned next season. Tiller actually dropped 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting, fetched five rebounds and tallied five blocks for the Jayhawks in an 80-60 win over Missouri last December in Kansas City, Missouri.

Tiller, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, has played the Missouri game and experienced it firsthand, albeit at a neutral site but nonetheless a legitimate venue at the T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City. Still, this sort of thing would be unheard of even five, six years ago, and I can’t imagine what the reaction of some former basketball stars will be if the Tigers actually win out with Tiller and bring him home.

The current, six-game Kansas-Missouri series, commonly referred to as the “Border War,” expired with this year’s matchup at the T-Mobile Center. It’s unclear whether the game will continue next season and whether Tiller plays against Kansas in a Mizzou uniform rests on whether the two programs renew the series.

Gates and Missouri will be fighting off some big dogs, including the defending national champion, Michigan, to win Tiller for next season. Regardless, it’ll burn whether Tiller is meeting Kansas on the opposite side of the Big 12 or through a familiar foe like Arizona.