Yaya Keita enters the transfer portal

The transfer portal churns, and sometimes it ever sucks in players who you once held in high regard. As Dennis Gates continues to remake the Missouri Basketball roster there were bound to be casualties, and the latest player to walk out the door is Freshman Post Yaya Keita.

Keita was an interesting prospect coming in as a freshman. A player who played at DeSmet High School in St. Louis, MO and was still relatively new to basketball. But also one who missed his senior season after tearing his ACL. So a season of lost skill development, and progress put him into a tough spot as he tried to build strength and confidence in his repaired knee.

Keita was never a player who looked like a star at the next level, but he was a mobile and athletic body with good size and soft hands who was still working on the finer points of being a basketball player. He provided consistent defense, and looked to be rounding back into basketball shape when he landed awkwardly and injuried his non-repaired knee in the road game against Vanderbilt. After that he didn’t play the rest of the season.

On the season Keita saw action in 20 games, averaged just 1.2 points per game and had an Offensive Rating of 84.9. So with his coach moving out, and a new one coming in, it did seem logical Keita might be a player who could be on the move. The main argument for keeping Keita around was he could be a good program guy and be a rotational big. Now it looks like he’ll fulfill that role elsewhere.

With the news of Christian Jones opting out of his letter of intent, and now Keita entering the portal, that leaves Mizzou with one open scholarship in the 2022-23 season.

We likely know that spot is already filled, as Dennis Gates tweeted his bat signal out earlier today... and we’re still waiting to see what the tweet was about. Although I have my suspicions.