Graduate guard Nick Honor has been a leader since the moment he arrived on a college campus. 

It started his freshman year at Fordham, where he started all 32 games and led the Rams in points and assists per game. 

His next stop was with the Clemson Tigers, where he started at the point guard spot for 35 of his 57 games there, leading the bench unit as the sixth man in his other 22 appearances. 

Now he is finishing his college career in Columbia after being named a captain for both seasons under head coach Dennis Gates. 

The captaincy role is a challenging one regardless of the obstacles that fall in a team’s path. You have to get your teammates to buy into the coach’s program and help resolve locker room issues, while also never letting your effort level dip. 

However, keeping your team on the right track becomes increasingly difficult when you have a donut in the win column for SEC play. Thankfully for the players in the locker room, this isn’t Honor’s first experience leading a struggling team. 

In Honor’s freshman year, he was the starting point guard on a Fordham team that finished 12-20 overall. They ended dead-last in the Atlantic 10 conference with a 3-15 A-10 record. 

He then took a redshirt year and transferred to Clemson, earning a trip to March Madness in his first year. But his second year with the Tigers was much less successful, as Clemson finished tenth in the ACC with an 8-12 record in conference play.

Now, Honor finds himself at the bottom of his conference once again, trying to guide Missouri to a win in the midst of its worst losing streak since 2014-15. But if anyone has the experience to do it, it’s Honor. 

“I’ve been in college for forever,” Honor said. “I got stories and advice for days.”

One thing that the sixth-year senior’s previous struggles in college have taught him is the importance of having a short memory between mistakes and failed plays. 

Typically, when teams reach the conference portion of their schedule, they will play two games a week. If you get hung up over a loss Tuesday night, that can be a quick way to be sure of a loss four days later. 

“Losing sucks, nobody really likes that,” Honor said. “SEC play is quick turnarounds, we just gotta move on to the next one and try to be 1-0 every game.”

While the leadership role that Honor finds himself in is not an easy one, it is one that he values being placed in. 

“The luxury I’ve had is just leading these guys,” Honor said. “Younger guys, just showing them … that’s definitely a blessing that I’ve had this year.”

In the past week, Honor’s play on the court has ramped up. With East, the Tigers’ leading scorer, missing both the Texas A&M and Mississippi State games with a knee contusion, Honor has been one of the top two Missouri scorers in both games. 

“I felt the need to step up a lot,” Honor said. “I knew it was gonna be a lot more on the ball, just trying to get everybody in their spots while looking for my own shot.”

In the past two games with East on the sidelines, Honor is averaging 17 points per game and shooting 40% from three. 

So while it may feel like this season has been nothing but disappointment, things could’ve been much worse if Honor didn’t decide to stick around. 

Edited by Michael Stamps | mstamps@themaneater.com 

Copy edited by Hannah Taylor and Sterling Sewell | ssewell@themaneater.com