As confidence grows in Missouri’s Torrence Watson, so does his role in Tigers’ offense

Shortly before Missouri’s basketball game against South Carolina on Saturday, Tigers freshman guard Torrence Watson had a message to his teammates as warmups concluded.

“It’s going to be one of those days.”

Watson backed up the talk, scoring a career-high 20 points in Missouri’s win over the Gamecocks. On Tuesday night against Georgia, it was another one of those days.

After missing his first five threes, Watson drilled five straight in the second half that put the game out of reach for the Bulldogs in a 64-39 Mizzou win.

“He shoots with the utmost confidence,” said MU senior Jordan Geist. “Might airball one, might airball two, but he’s still going to shoot that thing.”

Watson’s offense has been a process since arriving in Columbia as a four-star recruit from St. Louis. Early in the season, he looked passive on offense despite scoring 2,755 points at Whitfield High School. When Watson did take a shot, it was almost exclusively a corner three.

The 6-foot-4 guard later said that he never had to play defense in high school the way that MU coach Cuonzo Martin expects, which also messed with his confidence. Over the course of the season, Watson slowly expanded his game on offense, shooting threes from all over the floor and getting to the rim as he got more comfortable and confident.

On Monday, Watson said his mother told him his performance on Saturday reminded her of the performances he put on at Whitfield, where he averaged 31.2 points per game as a senior.

Martin said he can’t point to one reason or another as to why Watson has come on late in the season, other than that all players develop differently.

“Everybody grows and learns at their own pace,” Martin said. “When I got to college it was a big adjustment for me compared to some of my teammates. He continues to grow. It’s never too late. But to see a guy grow, I see the results in that with him.”

After playing in Class 3 during his entire career at Whitfield, Watson faced a tougher uphill adjustment to college ball than some of his other teammates and has spent a lot of the year learning what he can and can’t get away with on offense.

On Tuesday, Watson’s 17 points were second-most to Geist, who finished with 18. During Monday’s SEC teleconference, Georgia coach Tom Crean said preparing for Watson was difficult because of his range and readiness to shoot.

If Georgia put MU in a zone, Crean said, it would give him plenty of looks. Crean had Georgia play man-to-man on Tuesday and Watson still found a way to hit five threes.

After one of his threes on Tuesday, Watson told his teammates he’d given himself the green light and was going to shoot if they found him. Sophomore center Jeremiah Tilmon didn’t think Watson needed to explain himself, but took it as another sign of growth for the freshman.

“His confidence is building up so much,” Tilmon said. “As long as he’s confident and stays confident, he’s going to be good.”

This story was originally published March 7, 2019 at 3:05 PM with the headline "As confidence grows in Missouri’s Torrence Watson, so does his role in Tigers’ offense."