What’s working for Missouri basketball during the Tigers’ four-game winning streak?

When Missouri lost Jontay Porter before the season to an ACL tear, the team’s postseason probabilities went from expected to cloudy or even unrealistic.

But the Tigers’ four-game winning streak and a disappointing showing by the Southeastern Conference during the nonconference season has the possibility back on the table for Cuonzo Martin’s squad.

While Missouri was expected to beat teams like Oral Roberts and Texas-Arlington regardless of Porter’s presence, the team’s recent wins over Central Florida and Xavier give MU momentum heading into Saturday’s Braggin’ Rights game in St. Louis against Illinois.

So what has been clicking for Missouri lately?

Senior Kevin Puryear said the team has finally developed some chemistry after losing its best player and integrating a lot of freshmen and transfers to the team.

“This team is fairly new,” Puryear said. “We’re still getting acquainted with each other. I think it was just us taking our early bumps and getting acquainted with each other.”

One of those freshmen is point guard Xavier Pinson. The 6-foot-2 floor general was erratic early in the season and a part of Missouri’s turnover problem with his no-look passes and flashy ball-handling causing more harm than good.

Recently, he’s turned a corner. Pinson is an assist shy of sharing Jordan Geist’s team-high 24 for the season and has made the most of his playing time. Despite only averaging 16.5 minutes per game, Pinson has found a way into the box score in each of the last four games. He had six points and four rebounds in just six minutes against Central Florida. In Tuesday’s win over Xavier, Pinson had six rebounds and a team-high five assists in just 16 minutes. He’s also shooting 40 percent from three.

Maybe most importantly for Pinson, he only has five turnovers in Missouri’s last four games. As a team, MU has averaged 11.75 turnovers per game and has stayed under 15, which is where they start to really hurt the Tigers.

“We’re getting better at it,” Martin said of turnovers. “We were careless in some areas. It’s a work in progress.”

Offensively, Missouri has had more balanced scoring, which it needs without a go-to scorer like Porter. The Tigers have had at least three players reach double-figures during its four-game winning streak. Torrence Watson has had a pair of 12-point games and Tilmon has emerged as a double-double threat and has mostly managed to avoid foul trouble.

Tilmon is averaging 13.8 points and 7.2 rebounds in his last four games. As a freshman he shot 52 percent from the free-throw line and he’s shooting 71 percent this season.

After a career-high 23 points against Xavier on Tuesday, Martin said Tilmon had his best game statistically but still thinks his center has room to grow.

“There’s another level to him,” Martin said.

Missouri will need a little bit of everything on Saturday against a 4-7 Illinois team that has played Gonzaga, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Xavier and Iowa State. While the Tigers beat the Musketeers and fell to the Cyclones, Illinois has dropped both games.

The Tigers have dropped five straight to the Fighting Illini and Brad Underwood’s press could give MU some trouble. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.

This story was originally published December 19, 2018 at 12:00 PM.