Missouri basketball wing Trent Pierce will return for senior season
Missouri basketball will have an increasingly rare four-year player on its roster next season, as Trent Pierce will return to the Tigers for 2026-27.
In what has become a rarity in college basketball in the NIL and transfer portal era, Missouri basketball will have a fourth-year player, a senior, on its roster next season. Trent Pierce, who has been with the program since he signed as part of the Tigers’ Class of 2023, has signed a deal to return to Mizzou in the 2026-27 season. Pierce confirmed the news by reposting the initial report from college basketball insider Joe Tipton to his X/Twitter account on Monday.
According to research from CBS Sports’ Isaac Trotter, only 22 high-major players in men’s college basketball last season graduated in 2026 from the same school they started at four years ago. Mizzou could have had two of those players next season, but point guard Anthony Robinson II — who signed with the Tigers in the same year as Pierce — announced Monday that he will spend his senior season elsewhere and intends to enter the transfer portal when it is open between April 7 and 21. Pierce’s role has incrementally increased each year with the program, as he went from a reserve on the dismal 2023-24 team to a rotation member in 2024-25 to a full-time starter and key player on last season's squad.
The 6-foot-10 wing from Tulsa, Oklahoma, averaged 10. 4 points and 3. 8 rebounds per game for Mizzou last season.
Pierce, who missed all of MU’s nonconference with an injury, has a silky jumper and had his best shooting season with the program last year, putting up a 38. 4% clip from 3-point range. Mizzou is able to return eight players and has added three incoming freshmen in a highly-touted 2026 recruiting class.