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Missouri dips into juco ranks to bolster backcourt depth

Frank Haith

Within the past week, it has been announced that both Jordan Clarkson and Jabari Brown would leave Missouri and enter the NBA draft. Since there hasn’t been an update regarding whether Shane Rector and Wes Clark have been reinstated, coach Frank Haith needed to bolster his backcourt depth, and the program recently received a commitment from Kevin Punter, a guard from State Fair Community College.

According to Brad Winton of Juco Recruiting, Punter is a versatile guard who seems to be peaking at the right time: in his teams two tournament games at the NJCAA, Punter averaged more than 25 points per game and made 68.1 percent of his twos. He didn’t display an accurate touch from long-range, but on the season, Punter’s shooting from beyond the arc was adequate (36 percent), and the guard should account for some of the minutes lost when Brown and Clarkson departed (as well as some of the their scoring).

Along with the additions of Deuce Bello and Cameron Biedscheid, Missouri should have twelve Tigers under scholarship for next season (including Punter), so the natural assumption is that Haith and his staff aren’t finished recruiting for the 2015 season. The team could still use some backcourt depth, and Haith may still land a juco guard, or the staff might strengthen the frontcourt: Johnathan Williams and Ryan Rosburg are the only two returning bigs who used more than 50 percent of Mizzou’s available minutes.

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