SEC Basketball: Way-too-early power rankings for 2022-23 season
By Joey Loose
8. Missouri
Cuonzo Martin was fired after five seasons at Missouri but Dennis Gates is acting fast to make Tigers fans move forward. Gates has been busy all offseason rebuilding a roster that lost a significant amount of talent and he’s put these Tigers in position to be better than last season’s 12-21 struggle.
Forwards Kobe Brown (last year’s leading scorer) and Ronnie DeGray III are back, while transfers will play a huge role in the rest of the rotation. They only just got a big addition in Isiaih Mosley from Missouri State who will be a featured part of the offense. They’ll get a junior college star in Mohamed Diarra, who should start at center. Junior college stud Sean East pairs with Nick Honor from Clemson and Noah Carter from Northern Iowa to provide some extra offensive depth, while Gates also took D’Moi Hodge from Cleveland State and landed solid 4-star forward Aidan Shaw.
After that jumble of names and roles, the important thing to know is that this Missouri team is in transition but has a ton of talent on the roster. Gates quickly transformed Cleveland State from a dumpster fire to a conference champion, and while the challenge is much greater in the SEC, he is capable of doing some pretty great things at Missouri. For now, it’ll be interesting to see how a transformed lineup gels together in a tough league, though this spot in the rankings feels about right.