Missouri basketball lands Iowa point guard Tony Perkins out of portal
Missouri basketball has bolstered its backcourt.
Dennis Gates and the Tigers secured their second commitment of the offseason on Monday morning, landing Iowa point guard Tony Perkins out of the transfer portal. The former Hawkeye, who has one year of eligibility remaining, announced his decision to commit to Mizzou via his Instagram account.
Perkins joins UT Martin wing Jacob Crews as a Mizzou commit, as MU looks to right wrongs from the 2023-24 campaign when Missouri lost all 18 of its Southeastern Conference regular season games last season and lost in the opening round of the league tournament to end its season.
The Tigers have the No. 4 recruiting class in the nation on the way to Columbia in the summer, with five top-150 prospects in the Class of 2024 signed on to Gates’s side.
More: Missouri basketball transfer portal tracker: Who is joining, leaving Tigers?
Perkins was a much-needed addition to Missouri’s backcourt, as point guards Sean East II and Nick Honor exhausted their eligibility last season.
Perkins, who stands 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, averaged 14 points per game for Iowa in his senior year last season, and 12.3 points per game as a junior. He collected 4.4 rebounds last season and had 158 assists and 54 steals while turning it over 66 times in 34 appearances.
The point guard scored at a 29.9% clip from 3 while taking a little more than two deep attempts per contest. He’s a career 43.9% from the field and 76.8% from the free throw line.
The Tigers have rising sophomore point guard Anthony Robinson II set to return to Columbia next season, and three-star PG signee T.O. Barrett is MU-bound.
Per reporting from The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffrry recently said Perkins would have a market value of $500,000 in NIL compensation, and added that Iowa wasn’t going to be able to pay him that.
Now, Perkins is a Tiger for his final year of eligibility. More transfers are expected to follow in the near future.
The move now puts Missouri at an estimated 14 scholarship players, one over the traditional limit. NIL funds are expected to play a sizable role in Mizzou's roster math, with funds expected to supplant traditional scholarship roles. Gates has previously told reporters that he would like a roster of more than 20 players.
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This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri basketball lands Iowa point guard Tony Perkins out of portal
