7-foot-5 Mizzou basketball center Trent Burns had the best game of his career against Vanderbilt. His role as a backup center is important to Mizzou's future success.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Mizzou basketball has a new X-factor, and it’s one many have been clamoring for for the better part of two years: Trent Burns.
The 7-foot-5 redshirt freshman made his debut against South Carolina State earlier this season and has played in spot minutes throughout the latter half of Mizzou’s non-conference schedule and in short stints during Southeastern Conference play.
His stints were kept short due to lack of consistency, slow movement and overall low feel for how a high-level basketball team operates in crucial situations.
Burns was slotted to be the Tigers top backup big, so when he — along with fellow backups Luke Northweather and Nicholas Randall — struggled to provide positive minutes, head coach Dennis Gates had a gaping hole in his rotation.
Gates wanted to fix that.
“I told him, ‘I'm not going to play you ever again if you don't earn it in practice,’” Gates said. “We need somebody to step up, especially at the five spot.”
Gates continued to tear into Burns, pressuring him to perform at a high level. Burns’ teammates knew he had it in him to do so.
“I heard guys stick up for him and say, ‘Leave him alone. Leave him alone. He got it. Leave him alone. Coach, he got it,’” Gates said. “And the biggest voice was Jacob Crews. Jacob Crews was the one really protecting the mental and emotional push that I had on Trent Burns, giving him that confidence, and he just fought through the practice. Had a great practice, and it comes from the support of the team.”
That great practice finally gave Gates the faith to play Burns when it mattered most. Burns logged a career-high 19 minutes and hauled in a career-high seven rebounds, leading the team with a plus-minus of 19 in a 81-80 victory.
His size and roll-man ability was the driving factor in unlocking Mizzou’s offense during a second-half run, as his pick-and-roll with T.O. Barrett was the initial action to nearly every play in the stretch.
His length was also key in slowing Vanderbilt’s offense — the Commodores shot just 8-for-22 on layups.
“We thought we might be able to exploit him on defense a little bit,” Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington said. “He did a good job recovering. We really couldn't take advantage of him.”
Burns improving his movement to match his imposing stature is vital to his growth as a reliable big in the SEC. His character, however, is already tremendous.
“I just noticed with Burns, like the tremendous character that he has,” Jayden Stone said. “He's always even-keel and never gets too high, never gets too low, and he just stayed ready. So it's a credit to him.”
Should Burns continue to blossom into a reliable backup — which his teammates believe will happen — Mizzou can keep its size advantage over opponents even when starting center Shawn Phillips Jr. is on the bench. That hasn’t been the case all season, but it could be now, thanks to Burns.