(Photo Credit: Missouri Athletics)
Missouri center Josh Gray is proving that in college basketball you don’t have to look to score in order to be effective.
Gray, who is on his third SEC school in five seasons, has played in 118 SEC games and started 32 of them. The kicker; he’s never averaged more than five points a game in a season. In fact, he’s only scored in double figures four times in his college career.
The Missouri big man has yet to eclipse the 10-point mark this season and is averaging just 2.7 points per game, yet he’s started 14 games and is playing 14.7 minutes a night.
“Everyone wants to score, but it’s all about role,” Gray told Southeastern 16. “I watch a lot of basketball, college and NBA and the people that succeed are that people that are really good at their roles.”
Gray knows that on a team with talented off-the-dribble scorers like Tamar Bates, Tony Perkins and Mark Mitchell he has to be realistic about what his role should be. That role often hasn’t had anything to do with hunting his own shot, It’s more about playing to the identity that the 7-footer has developed over the years.
In all but one of Gray’s five college seasons, he’s averaged more rebounds per game than points and has added a unique dimension to each team he’s been on.
“I don’t care about a basket he scores,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said of Gray after Missouri’s win over Vanderbilt. “If he can hedge a ball screen, wall up at the rim, challenge any shot without fouling, be able to physically impose himself, be able to rebound how he rebounded with two hands, the young man can impact the game without even having a basket being made.”
“He needs to be SEC All-Defensive Team.”
The things that Gates mentions often don’t show up on the stat sheet, but they matter. Perhaps what matters more is the attitude that the fifth-year senior possesses. Gray has made it a point to do all the dirty work that most other teams have to do by committee while finding ways to get his teammates involved.
Whoever Gray is matched up with may outscore him, but they won’t often out-physical him. They also won’t get him to stop doing what he does.
“I’m not a pushover,” Gray told Southeastern 16. “I’m a good guy, but when I get on the court I’m trying to win so [I’m] very competitive, very tough, very physical.”
Not many guys around the country are confident enough to say that about themselves. Gray wears it, though. The Missouri center is a different breed, as he always has been.
As a Brooklyn native, Gray has had to be. The 7-footer is often to himself about his life experiences, but isn’t afraid to share the character of the city that he grew up in. As a result, he’s brought it down south.
That took time to learn how to craft, though.
“New York City is a tough city to grow up in,” Gray said. “I had to learn how to turn [toughness and physicality] on because usually when I was in high school I only turned it on when I got mad, but now I’ve gotten to the point where it’s always on.”
Missouri’s high aspirations and the sacrifice it will take to get there
Gray and his teammates have seen what it can look like when things are going for its entire roster. They’ve seen evidence in their wins over Florida and Ole Miss that when things are going they can get to a place that its program has never been.
“We feel like we’re a tournament team,” Gray said. “We feel like we can make it to San Antonio when it’s all said and done, but it all comes down to togetherness, team camaraderie and letting go of our individual goals and just worrying about what’s best for the team.”
Gates’ team, which finished last season 0-18 in conference play, is out to a 5-2 start in league play and is proving to be capable of stringing multiple wins together when it matters. It appears to have figured out role allocation at a high level.
“We got 18 guys and five guys that can play so there might be some discrepancies with playing time,” Gray said. “But at the same time, everyone on our bench is excited to see the next man shine and even when someone goes down it’s always the next man up mentality.”
Even if Missouri doesn’t reach its goal of San Antonio, it’s already done the near implausible.
Bouncing back from 0-18
The last time an SEC team went 0-18, it resulted in Bryce Drew’s firing from Vanderbilt and a multi-year rebuild ensuing on West End.
This has looked different, like…really different.
Missouri is ranked 20th in the AP Poll, and is off to a 5-2 start in league play and a 16-4 start overall.
With the help of transfers like Gray, Mitchell, Bates and Perkins the Tigers have undergone one of college basketball’s best–and most underrated– turnarounds.
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