​Before teaming up at Missouri, transfers Bryson Tiller, right, and Jaylen Carey, left, battled at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas last November.  | Getty Images Under coach Dennis Gates, patience defined Missouri’s search for a center.When the transfer portal opened, the Tigers’ staff devoted early resources elsewhere to shore up or reboot their roster. Then, usually in late April or May, the program would rummage around for an affordable veteran, a process that turned up the likes of Connor Vanover, Josh Gray or Shawn Phillips Jr. At the same time, MU might take a swing on a project like Jordan Butler, Peyton Marshall or Trent Burns.Four years in, neither approach has cultivated much continuity.So, Gates changed tack this spring. He moved swiftly to secure Jaylen Carey as a rugged depth piece and committed real resources to mining Bryson Tiller’s upside. Meanwhile, MU kept Burns in the fold rather than abandoning the developmental route.Ideally, Tiller makes the pecking order easy by claiming the bulk of the minutes. But with Carey and Burns on hand, Gates has some latitude to tailor the job rather than ask one player to handle everything. And that’s useful because operating at center involves more than occupying the lane and waiting to contest a shot. Often, the job starts when something goes wrong farther from the basket.As we’ve noted before, tMU’s late-season slide wasn’t tied to a lack of size. The trouble started on the ball. The Tigers couldn’t consistently prevent guards and wings from turning the corner, forcing the back line to absorb one breakdown after another. Eventually, it couldn’t plug every leak. Starting in late January, the results around the rim made that clear.View LinkAt least Gates has more ways to handle that pressure. Bryson Tiller, Jaylen Carey and Trent Burns bring different tools to the job, giving MU some flexibility in how it protects the paint.There’s a catch, though. None carried a starter’s workload at center last season. As a group, they averaged slightly more than 16 minutes per game, operating as clear backups or deep-bench options. Their court time was relatively consistent, but hardly extensive.View LinkDoes that mean a larger burden is beyond them? Not necessarily. But we’re dealing with projections, not proof. In previous seasons, Gates’ scheduling philosophy might have afforded more time to tinker and sort out the rotation. This campaign won’t afford the same luxury.Still, scattered throughout those modest minutes are clues about what each player might provide — and, just as importantly, what Gates would need to put around him to make it work.Bryson Tiller: Versatility — With a TradeoffThe last time Tiller saw extended time at the five, it overlapped with four minutes as Houston began to pull away in the Big 12 Tournament semifinal.JoJo Tugler walled off the redshirt freshman from a Mercy Miller drive, then backed him down and spun around a wall-up for an easy bucke