Basketball
It’s no secret that the foundation of Missouri’s 2026-27 roster is constructed around supporting incoming five-star freshman guard Jason Crowe Jr.
Be it by adding size, defense, spacing or veteran presence, each transfer pickup the Tigers’ made in the portal fit that mold. Kennard Davis Jr. is no different.
A St. Louis native, Davis spent the first two seasons of his career at Southern Illinois, where he blossomed from a role player to a top option. Between his 2023-24 freshman and 2024-25 sophomore seasons, Davis leapt from 4.2 to 16.3 points per game while raising all three of his major shooting splits.
He then hit the transfer portal in search of higher competition, eventually landing at BYU for the 2025-26 season, where he started 32 games but averaged 8.5 points per game while dropping each of his three major shooting splits.
Davis transferred once more, returning to his home state to suit up for the most-anticipated Missouri squad of the decade next season. While he may not start or be a top scoring option, Davis will certainly play an important role on the team.
What Davis brings
One of Davis’ most valuable traits that he’ll bring to the program actually has nothing to do with his individuality as a player. In fact, it’s the opposite. Davis spent last season playing alongside five-star freshman and potential No. 1 overall draft pick AJ Dybantsa, learning how to play a complementary role to a ball-dominant star.
While Crowe and Dybantsa don’t share much overlap as players, both are or were highly-ranked freshman coming into an organization with the weight of the world on their shoulders and an expected high usage rate. Davis, having spent a year learning how to help Dybantsa — and in turn, his team — thrive, can now do the same thing for Crowe at Missouri.
Davis could play a variety of roles with the Tigers. He could start alongside Crowe in the backcourt, shifting Jamier Jones to the three, Trent Pierce to the four and Bryson Tiller to the five, but given Dennis Gates’ previous statements on Jones as a backcourt player, it seems that Davis’ most likely role is as a sixth man. That’s no slight at Davis, however, as the role of sixth man has been important for the Tigers the past two seasons — Caleb Grill winning SEC Sixth Man of the Year in 2024-25, and Jayden Stone and Pierce thriving off the bench for stints in 2025-26.
While his role could vary, his skillset seems relatively surefire.
Davis is a quality, tough-nosed defender who can help alleviate the pressure off Crowe on that side of the basketball by taking on the tougher guard matchup each night. He averaged more than one steal per game in each of his last two seasons and posted a career-high defensive box plus-minus of 1.5 last season despite BYU middling as a defensive team.
Along with being a quality defender, Davis will likely act as the pseudo-point guard off the bench, as he has the most prior experience handling the ball among Missouri’s reserves. In his high-usage sophomore season at Southern Illinois, Davis averaged 2.6 assists to 2.3 turnovers per game — not ideal numbers, but if playing against backups in and alongside quality floor-spacing, the number could be improved upon with the Tigers.
While Davis’ 3-point shooting dropped down to 32.1% on 5.2 attempts per game last season, he shot 37.6% on 5.1 attempts per game the season prior. He’s shot around 75% from the charity stripe in each of the last two seasons as well. If Davis can return to form as a shooter, he’d be a dream pairing next to Crowe in the backcourt, acting as a quality defender, shooter and ball-handler — a trifecta of skills not many players have.
Standing at 6-foot-6, 215 pounds, he fits into Missouri’s identity of having positional size, which will be needed in a backcourt consisting of otherwise-small players like Crowe, Aaron Rowe and Jordan Crawford, all of whom weight less than 180 pounds.
Davis’ role may not be as crucial as Crowe or the projected starters around him, but he’ll serve arguably the most important role off the bench. Here’s how it could vary.
Davis’ Ceiling
In an ideal world, Davis puts together all the best parts from his last two seasons to blossom into an elite role player. He’d be a knockdown 3-point shooter, quality defender and capable ball-handler, playing heavy minutes off the bench both without and alongside Crowe.
Stats: 9 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2 apg, 1.5 spg, 1.5 tpg, 45% FG, 39% 3FG, 77% FT
Davis’ Floor
In a worst-case scenario, Davis’ flipping of roles the past three seasons is too much of an adjustment to handle, and he struggles to find his niche at Missouri. The jumper doesn’t quite come around, and he’d struggle to be the backup point guard that the Tigers’ bench desperately needs.
Stats: 6 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 1.2 apg, 0.8 spg, 1.8 tpg, 39% FG, 32% 3FG, 70% FT
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