Anton Brookshire enters the transfer portal

The transfer portal is always a very active place this time of year. And for Missouri, they officially lost their second player off the 2021-22 roster to the portal today in freshman Anton Brookshire. The first player, Sean Durugordon, has been in the portal since late January but has yet to announce a destination.

Brookshire was the highest rated recruit in the freshman class this past season, but struggled to find consistent playing time in a rocky season. The Springfield, MO native played in 17 of the 31 games, started three, but only averaged 11.1% of the minutes after missing the last 10 games of the season with a wrist injury. At Kickapoo, Brookshire joined forces with fellow Mizzou freshman Trevon Brazile, and Missouri State freshman Isaac Haney to lead Kickapoo High School to a State Championship.

Coming into the program known as a shooter out of high school, Brookshire struggled from the outside, making only four of 23 3FG attempts. He did not connect on a 3 until the 9th game after missing his first 13 shots from outside.

Losing Brookshire to the portal was likely to happen, as his relationship with Cuonzo Martin and his staff seemed to go up and down a little as his playing time yo-yoed. Once Martin was let go, however, there was at least some intrigue to see if the talented freshman might wait it out to see who the next coach might be. But entering the portal means he can now officially listen to other coaches and programs.

With Javon Pickett’s graduation and an open 13th scholarship Mizzou carried into the season, having Brookshire and Durugordon in the portal means Missouri has two available spots to fill as long as 4-star wing Aidan Shaw and 3-star CG Christian Jones both stick with their Letter of Intent to play at Missouri. Since Mizzou is obviously in the middle of a coaching search, any discussion of potential spots being filled or vacant is fluid. But for those keeping track of the scholarship count, this leaves Missouri with 11 players on scholarship for the 2022-23 season.

Clearly with the coaching change, there’s a very good chance we’ll see more players enter the portal. We’ll attempt to stay on top of it.