Meet the player who gets Mizzou Arena rocking late in the game

Through Missouri’s first six home basketball games, only one player has been able to get the crowd to chant for Tigers coach Cuonzo Martin to sub him into the game. He sends the Missouri bench and the rest of the arena into pandemonium when he scores.

His name isn’t Michael Porter Jr.

It’s Adam Wolf.

With Porter, Missouri’s star freshman, sidelined as he recovers from back surgery, Wolf, a junior walk-on, has had a surprising impact on Mizzou Arena’s decibel level.

When Missouri has built a big lead during its nonconference home games, fans have chanted “We Want Wolf” in the final minutes.

Martin has put in the 6-foot-7 Wolf three times through the first six games, and he’s hit a three-pointer in every one. When he checks in, English pop band Duran Duran’s 1982 hit song “Hungry Like A Wolf” plays. It’s a walk-up song for the walk-on.

For the season, Wolf is shooting 100 percent (3 for 3) from beyond the arc, and his teammates would be surprised if he misses.

After Missouri’s blowout win over North Florida on Saturday, senior Jordan Barnett compared Wolf to a fellow member of the animal kingdom.

“Wolf is the goat (greatest of all time),” he said. “Honestly, if he shot 100 percent from three it wouldn’t surprise me. He’s that good of a shooter.”

Coming out of high school in Wisconsin, Wolf said he had between 10 to 15 Division II basketball offers but struggled to get on the radar of a Division I school because he battled numerous injuries throughout high school.

When Missouri — then led by coach Kim Anderson — offered him a walk-on spot, he took it.

His father, John, was a walk-on at Marquette for two years in the late 1980s, and he told Wolf what to expect: serving as a defensive stand-in at practice and mostly seeing the court as a member of the scout team.

“I love scout team,” Wolf said. “I get to chuck (up shots).”

Martin holds Wolf to the same standard that he does the scholarship players despite his limited playing time. After Wolf hit a three against Wagner in the team’s blowout win on Nov. 14, Martin said after the game that he didn’t get back on defense quickly.

“After the Wagner game I actually got talked to a little bit,” he said. “Not badly, but things I could have done better. It’s a night-by-night kind of thing. You’re up big, you go out there and have fun, but you stick to your principles.”

Wolf has benefited from Missouri’s influx of talent under Martin. The team is now more likely to pull away in nonconference games, which wasn’t the case under Anderson, and blowouts mean more chances for Wolf to play.

Missouri’s game on Tuesday night against Stephen F. Austin could be the last time Wolf sees the floor for a while, with the team’s SEC schedule right around the corner.

Barnett said he thinks it’s pretty common in college basketball for home crowds to give a little extra cheer when a walk-on scores because it was the same way at Texas, where he played for two years before transferring to Missouri.

But when Wolf got the ball in final minutes of Missouri’s win over Green Bay on Dec. 9, fans were already on their feet before the ball left his hands.

“I’ve never seen a crowd sit there and scream for a player to get into the game,” Barnett said. “That’s insane to me.”

Wolf has scored nine points in four games this season (he also appeared in one game away from home), which ties the amount he scored as a freshman. He scored just two points as a sophomore, which means he’s on pace to surpass his scoring output from the past two seasons combined.

He is still processing the newfound attention but is enjoying it, especially because if he’s playing, that usually means the team is winning.

“It’s pretty crazy because my first two years that never happened,” Wolf said of the chants he receives from the crowd. “It kind of shocked me because I’m not used to it. I’m really just embracing it.”

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 2:19 PM with the headline "Meet the player who gets Mizzou Arena rocking late in the game."