Another freshman entered the transfer portal after not making much of an impact in year one.
Another day, another portal entry.
Losing Marcus Allen hurt, Missouri was high on him, but his movement was somewhat foreseeable considering his position and who was ahead of him still on the roster. From that perspective, Peyton Marshall’s exit was less predictable.
For Marshall, the path to playing time was ahead of him. He would have to earn those minutes against competition, but there was no Mark Mitchell standing in the way at the 5 spot. Missouri recruited Shawn Phillips to fill in a reserve roll in the middle, and Trent Burns is waiting in the wings as well.
Missouri also played much of the season last year without a true five, Mitchell and Trent Pierce handled the forward spots well enough. So perhaps with all those elements in play, Marshall opted for a program in need of a little more inside. And Peyton certainly is more inside!
Marshall played the second most games (22) of any freshman behind Allen (26), but played fewer minutes (97) than T.O. Barrett (102) and Annor Boateng (109).
He had some huge moments this year. He played 14 minutes in the Cal game and helped lead the Tigers come back in that game including 6 points. He had a big bucket against Illinois in the Braggin Rights game. He was a physical enforcer for the team in Gainesville, he didn’t play that many minutes in the game but the Gators felt his fouls.
By the end of the season though, Marshall’s contributions were minimal. Just 9 of 18 from the floor, and 5 of 19 from the free throw line. He had a 32% turnover rate which dragged his offensive rating to just 70.5.
The potential was there, still is there. It’ll just be realized or not somewhere else, for Marshall he’s starting over at Georgia Tech. The bigger loss here is the time and investment Missouri made into helping him develop. During his time at OTE, Marshall worked on the offensive skills he would need to be ready to play at Missouri. He also worked on his body. It was a lot of time and energy invested into a prospect to just watch him walk out the door.
So what would otherwise be considered a normal season for a developmental big man, ended with how most things end these days in college basketball, the transfer portal.
It’s sometimes difficult to remember before, but interior players rarely come out of the high school ranks ready to go. Marshall, despite being a well-regarded 4-star recruit, was always going to need some time to incubate. He’ll just doing some more incubation in Atlanta now instead of Columbia.