Missouri Basketball: Who is the Tigers’ most important player in 2017-18?

The Missouri Tigers are ready to move on from being at the bottom of the SEC, but which player is most important to that step forward?

The Missouri Tigers enter the 2017-18 college basketball season with a brand new coach in Cuonzo Martin and the potential to be one of the best teams in the country thanks to the arrival of a phenomenal recruiting class.

That being said, Missouri also could be a middling SEC team and wants to avoid the fate of Ben Simmons and the LSU Tigers from a few seasons ago.

While I wish I could tell you that Missouri’s most important player heading into the 2017-18 season would be some little-hyped veteran like it is with many SEC teams, I think everyone knew who this was going to be the moment they clicked on this article – Michael Porter Jr.

Porter joins the Tigers as the No. 1 recruit from the Class of 2017 and likely a top pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

The 6-10, 213-pound small forward from Seattle is a fantastic athlete and basketball player and should thrive under Martin as a freshman. The rest of this recruiting class is solid as well, as the Tigers will bring in Jeremiah Tilmon, Blake Harris, C.J. Roberts, and, potentially, Johntay Porter.

However, Porter will be the key to this team’s success. He cannot do what Dennis Smith and Markelle Fultz did last season (and even Simmons the season before that) by playing well; he must meet expectations and make the players around him better.

It sounds like he really wants to succeed at the collegiate level before he heads off to the NBA, so I do not think he’ll just play his game and wait until draft day.

Next: Ranking top coaching moves of the offseason

I honestly think he will listen to what Martin has to say and become a better basketball player and — knowing Martin’s reputation from his time at Tennessee — person for it. And both he and Missouri will benefit from it.