COLUMBIA, MO. • Three years ago Kevin Puryear led Missouri in scoring as a freshman, but there wasn’t much to enjoy playing on a 10-win team that struggled to compete most nights in the Southeastern Conference.
Now a senior, Puryear has seen his role evolve from year to year, but three games into his final slate of conference games, Tigers coach Cuonzo Martin wasn’t getting enough from his power forward. Martin counts on Puryear for more than scoring this season — he’s just fourth on the team with 8.7 points a game — and needed to pull more out of the 6-7 senior.