High-scoring transfer guard picks Mizzou, but Tigers lose Xavier Pinson, Parker Braun
Missouri men’s basketball lost one guard this week to the transfer portal and has now added one the same way.
Amari Davis, who led Wisconsin-Green Bay with a 17.2-point scoring average this season, announced his commitment to Missouri on his Twitter account.
The 6-foot-4 Davis has played two seasons for the Phoenix with the program changing coaches after his first.
He was a second-team All-Horizon League selection last season, shooting 42.2% from the field, 28.8% on three-pointers and 80.4% from the free-throw stripe. Davis averaged about two assists per game and 3.7 rebounds while leading the team in steals.
As a freshman, Davis averaged 15.9 points and was voted Horizon freshman of the year. He attempted only eight three-pointers and missed them all but he shot 54% inside the arc.
Davis, from Trotwood, Ohio, figures to compete as a starter immediately for Missouri after the Tigers’ Xavier Pinson announced that he was entering the NCAA’s transfer portal.
On Saturday, Parker Braun, the younger brother of Kansas’ Christian Braun (and, like his brother, a product of Blue Valley Northwest) entered the portal, too.
A 6-foot-8 forward, Braun had just completed his third year at Mizzou. He was the latest in his family to attend the school: His mother Lisa played for the Tigers from 1988-91, and her brother Mike Sandbothe played there, as well.
Braun averaged 2.8 points and 1.5 rebounds this season. He made four of his 10 three-point attempts. His best moments came in a home loss to Arkansas when he scored the basket that tied the score and blocked a shot that ensured overtime.
Pinson would have been Mizzou’s top returning scorer this season after averaging 13.6 points for the team that fell to Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The departures of Pinson and Braun leave Missouri with just three players who have been part of Cuonzo Martin’s rotation: Kobe Brown, Javon Pickett and Torrence Watson.
The Tigers are wooing 6-foot-3 KC Roos graduate transfer point guard Brandon McKissic, who also is being recruited by Kansas, Kansas State, Saint Louis and others. McKissic tweeted Thursday that he has received a scholarship offer from Martin.
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 9:30 AM.