Drifting off his left hand, the ball touched the net — like, literally, nothing but net as freshman forward Kevin Puryear drilled a fadeaway from the left elbow to begin the 2015-16 Missouri men’s basketball season.
Outside of Las Vegas’ line that favored the Tigers by a point and a half, not many expected much Friday night. Coming off a 9-23 season and facing one of last year’s 13-seeds in the NCAA tournament in the Wofford Terriers didn’t help either.
Puryear scored that first basket and did not look back. Left-hand floater, turnaround layup — the freshman from Blue Springs, Missouri, had everything going as he finished with 20 points and five rebounds for the Tigers.