Is Missouri an NCAA Tournament team this year? Cuonzo Martin thinks so

Cuonzo Martin did not hold back when asked about expectations for his third season as Missouri’s men’s basketball coach.

Are the Tigers a NCAA Tournament team?

“This team has the parts — minus injuries,” he said. “When you lose key guys that can change a lot. I like what they’re doing. I like what I see now.”

If all had gone according to plan, Martin would be entering his third season coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournaments led by the Porter brothers, who had just left for the NBA.

Two season-ending injuries later, Martin enters the season with his deepest team, especially in the backcourt. Missouri returns sophomores Torrence Watson, Javon Pickett and Xavier Pinson, juniors Jeremiah Tilmon and Mark Smith and adds Evansville transfer Dru Smith.

So how does Martin plan to use all of his pieces? With a lot of four-guard lineups.

Dru Smith begins his MU career with a lot of hype despite never playing against a high-major opponent in his first two years at Evansville. Tilmon has showered the 6-foot-3 guard with praise, saying he’s the best facilitator and finisher through contact he’s ever played with.

Martin downplayed expectations for his point guard and said that Dru Smith reminds him of Jontay Porter in that he can change a game in a lot of different ways.

“There could be a night where he has 15, 20 points or seven points,” Martin said. “If he led us in scoring, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was fifth in scoring I wouldn’t be surprised. I expect him to bring a lot to the table.”

Martin’s plan to use four-guard lineups and implement Smith should have a positive effect on Tilmon, who has battled foul trouble his first two years at MU. Martin considers freshmen Kobe Brown and Tray Jackson as guards, even though they’re both around 6-foot-8 and in the mix to start at power forward.

Tilmon said he doesn’t expect to get double-teamed, which led him to pick up some fouls, because all four players around him will be constant shooting threats, opening up things for him in the post.

“This year everybody that’s not a big, they’re shooting the ball,” Tilmon said. “It’s going to open up so much stuff for us.”

Martin plans to get creative with his four-guard lineups and has moved Brown to all five positions during the Tigers’ preseason workouts. Martin has also tried Jackson on the wing and expects junior Mitchell Smith to be a factor at power forward or as a stretch-five.

Hypothetically, Martin could deploy a lineup with Brown, Jackson, Mitchell Smith and Tilmon on the floor together, giving MU four players who are 6-7 or taller.

“I think there’s a lot of things we can do,” Dru Smith said of MU’s lineups. “At the end of the day they’ll all be solid. I don’t think there will be a dropoff.”

Martin said it’s highly doubtful MU ever deploys a lineup that features Tilmon and 7-footer Axel Okongo, who joined the program over the summer, as he doesn’t see a situation where MU would need two bigs on the floor, regardless of the size advantage.

He added that Tilmon has been “a dominant presence” in practice lately and said MU might use the 6-foot-10 center differently after looking at analytics.

“A lot of things we will do will go through him,” Martin said. “ You have to use him in a lot of ways. We’ve found he’s better when he’s diving into the rim as opposed to already set in the post. Now it’s harder for him to make moves. Now he’s hard to guard.”