Heading into the season there wasn’t much of an expectation the Tigers would be relying much upon their two incoming freshmen.
It was clear early on Aaron Rowe would be catching a redshirt, if that sort of thing exists anymore, but it did last year! And Nicholas Randall was expected to take the year to learn and watch a whole lot of Mark Mitchell. And watch he did.
Randall played in 22 of Missouri’s 33 games, and only three of those games saw him on the floor for double digit minutes. He played just 9% of the minutes available, which averages out to 5.5 minutes per game for those 22 who saw action in. But in only one game (at South Carolina) did Randall not record some kind of stat. Maybe it was a turnover, but Randall wasn’t playing empty minutes.
Offensively Randall was a little bit of a disaster. He only made 5 field goals all season on 18 attempts, and four of those five makes were dunks. The other was a layup. He had a turnover rate north of 30%, causing his offensive rating to be a paltry 65, or 0.65 points per possession. That’s as low as any player in Gates’s system since Kaleb Brown in 2023.
But there have been other freshmen who have performed poorly and turned into fixtures in the rotation, the most clear example is Trent Pierce. Pierce had a 71.6 offensive rating as a freshman, that number improved to 120.5 as a sophomore. While the two play different positions, and Randall may not be able to quite carve out the same role as Pierce did as a sophomore, there is a clear line of progress from past players Randall can look at as examples for how he can impact the program.
What Randall already possesses is good positional size and athleticism. He defends and rebounds well. And the offensive skill set is there enough for him to take big steps this season.
I’m considering this the review for Rowe as well.
Past Reviews:
- Mark Mitchell
- Jacob Crews
- Jevon Porter
- Shawn Phillips, Jr.
- Jayden Stone
- Sebastian Mack
- Anthony Robinson II
- T.O. Barrett