Michael Porter Jr. Update: Out Today, Possible Return to SEC Tournament

We’re officially on Michael Porter Jr., watch and we have been since last week when he was cleared for basketball activities. Porter of course was the prized recruit committing to Missouri this season and played just 2 minutes in the regular season opener before undergoing back surgery and being out ever since.

Some thought there will be a chance he plays in one of these games to end the season, but as Cuonzo Martin said, this isn’t a guy you can just put out there for 5-10 minutes and hope that’s enough. He’s too good for that. He has to play 20-30 minutes and won’t do so until he’s completely healthy.

Now, what makes this interesting is the fact that SEC Tournament this year is being held in…..St. Louis. You telling me Porter coming back in St. Louis to make his de facto debut wouldn’t be awesome? It would be downright awesome. It would make the SEC Tournament even more interesting than it currently is. Right now, the SEC is arguably the most wide open major tournament with no dominant team and the top-2 seeds being Tennessee and a banged up Auburn team.

Porter is expected to be a top-5/6 pick in the NBA Draft whether he plays or not (assuming he checks out with a clean bill of health from NBA doctors). He’s the prototypical stretch player in today’s game. At 6’10” he has strong handles, the ability to shoot and is still a good rebounder. More importantly he can really create for himself and give you roster versatility by being able to play big or small around him.

Missouri is expected to make the NCAA Tournament, so if Porter starts to play in the SEC Tournament it will be intriguing to see just how much he plays and how he looks. If he looks the part of what we all expected of him, Missouri could be a scary 7/8/9 seed.