Missouri men’s basketball acquired 6-foot-11, 235-pound junior Luke Northweather as its second transfer portal addition this offseason. The Missouri native played basketball at Blair Oaks High School in Jefferson City. Northweather built quite the resume there, averaging 29.2 points, 11.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.4 blocks and 2.0 steals per game his senior season, earning Gatorade Missouri Boys Basketball Player of the Year honors.
Despite his high school accomplishments, Northweather held just three offers: the Missouri Tigers, Wyoming Cowboys and Oklahoma Sooners. He chose Oklahoma to begin his college career and carved out a small role.
Northweather appeared in 55 games over two seasons with the Sooners, averaging 10.1 minutes a game. The big man posted averages of 2.4 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.4 assists while shooting 41.9% from the field, 31.3% from three and 76% from the free-throw line.
The majority of Northweather’s offensive value lies within his floor-spacing ability. Norweather’s three-point attempt rate in his sophomore season was 79.4% — a rate that would have been the highest three-point rate on the Tigers, 5% higher than Caleb Grill’s three-point rate.
Oklahoma didn’t have Northweather do much offensively besides pick and pop. Through the course of last season, he only attempted 13 two-pointers and 14 free throws, both of which are oddly low for a player his size. Northweather proved that he can effectively play off of a talented playmaker, sharing plenty of minutes with the 7th overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, Jeremiah Fears. The next step in Northweather’s development is adjusting to playing alongside the talent at Missouri, along with becoming more well-rounded inside the arc.
Defensively, there is a lot less to love. Northweather did post a positive defensive plus-minus and defensive win shares last season; however, a block rate of just 2.4% and a steal rate of 0.3% tell a different story. Northweather’s biggest problems on defense lie within his athletic limitations. It’s very difficult for bigs with poor mobility to be effective as rim protectors and Norweather is no exception to that rule. It’s easy for guards to expose his poor lateral quickness in pick and rolls, along with seemingly every player having their way with him in isolation.
Despite several technical and physical flaws, Northweather still found a way to statistically be net-positive on defense. The biggest reason for that is likely due to Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser putting him in situations and lineups where his defensive flaws wouldn’t be as apparent. Despite being flawed on that end of the floor, Northweather does do some things well defensively. He does a great job of utilizing his size to eat up space and has proven to be very smart with his off-ball positioning.
Expect Northweather to be an impact player for the Tigers this season. His flaws on both ends of the floor will likely keep him from playing a huge role for Missouri next season; however, his value as a stretch big will be enough to get him on the floor in spot minutes. If Northweather can show improvement inside the arc on offense and all-around on defense, he could see the floor in some high-stakes moments.
Edited by Colin Simmons | [email protected]
Copy edited by Alana Sheba and Emma Harper | [email protected]
Edited by Chase Pray | [email protected]
