Luke Northweather’s Missouri homecoming started with promise, then faded fast once SEC play arrived.
When Dennis Gates took over at Mizzou in 2022, he had a roster to build from scratch. That spring, Northweather was wrapping up a huge senior year at Blair Oaks in Jefferson City, where he helped lead the team to a 26-2 record.
His season ended in the District championship game against a Father Tolton team led by Jevon Porter and also featuring Aaron Rowe, and that group went on to reach the Class 4 title game before falling to Vashon. Northweather was excellent in that loss and all season long, finishing with 29 points per game before earning Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year honors.
Missouri and Northweather did talk at the time, but the Tigers needed immediate help, and a freshman big man was never likely to be a quick fix. So Northweather headed to Oklahoma to play for Porter Moser.
His path there was slow from the start: he redshirted his first season, then saw only limited action early as a redshirt freshman before injuries pushed him onto the floor more later in the year. As a redshirt sophomore, he played a bit more, but not by much.
Still, he wanted to come home. Northweather entered the transfer portal, reached out to Missouri, and made it clear he wanted to be back in the state.
That decision brought some skepticism from fans, and it was easy to understand why. He had been lightly used on some Oklahoma teams that weren’t exactly thriving.
Missouri, though, wasn’t expecting him to be a major part of the rotation right away. At first, the move looked like a depth add.
Then practice started, and Northweather began to look useful in a hurry.
The skill that stood out most was the one Missouri needed most: shooting.
With Trent Pierce sidelined and Jaden Stone also missing time, the 2025-26 Tigers badly needed someone who could space the floor. Jacob Crews was making shots, but there wasn’t much consistent perimeter production beyond him.
Before Pierce returned at the start of SEC play, Missouri launched 279 threes over 13 games. Northweather accounted for 29 of those attempts, or 10.3 percent, while playing about 17.7 minutes per game.
The Tigers made 102 threes in that stretch, and Northweather hit 13 of them, good for 12.7 percent. Along with Crews, he was part of the group that accounted for 50 percent of Missouri’s non-conference three-point makes.
Then everything changed.
Even though Northweather looked like he might carve out a steady role, his minutes vanished once conference play began. From the start of SEC action through the NCAA Tournament, he logged just 20 total minutes and did not make a field goal on three attempts.
The usage drop showed up plainly in Synergy clips from last season. There were only four conference-play clips of Northweather in the database, two from Florida and two from Auburn, and nothing else.
Northweather understood the challenge when he transferred in. He knew earning minutes would not be easy.
Once Pierce returned, Missouri had a dependable shooter who also offered similar size but more defensive versatility. At the same time, Gates tightened the rotation more than he has in recent years, and Northweather got squeezed out.
Trent Burns
Annor Boateng
Nicholas Randall
Mark Mitchell
Jacob Crews
Jevon Porter
Shawn Phillips, Jr.
Jayden Stone
Sebastian Mack
Anthony Robinson II
T.O. Barrett
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