COLUMBIA, Mo. -- An hour-and-a-half before tipoff of Missouri's final home game of the regular season, Michael Porter Jr. was alone on one side of the court, putting up shots in a mostly empty arena. A few early-bird fans snapped photos of him while more than a few reporters stood with their arms folded, stern looks across their faces, trying to decipher the readiness of one of the most talented college basketball players on the planet.

It was impossible to overlook the star freshman who had been mostly missing since November -- his seemingly endless length, his soft shooter's touch, his control with the ball in his hands. Watching him on the court again quickly brought to mind why the 6-foot-10 native of Columbia, Missouri, was one of the most coveted prospects in the country before the season began and why many -- Porter included -- hoped he would be capable of turning around a Missouri program that hadn't won more than 10 games in any of the past three seasons and had never reached the Final Four.

Just an hour later, when the rest of the team took the court for the pregame shootaround, the pack of eager onlookers all but disappeared, with Porter having retreated to the locker room to shower and change into a too-tight, team-issued black polo shirt he'd wear on the bench.

That was the extent of the Michael Porter Jr. experience that helped sell out Mizzou Arena for the first time since it opened in 2004. He had wanted to play, but he didn't have the confidence to do it until a few days later when he told coach Cuonzo Martin he was prepared to play in the SEC tournament on Thursday.

"Honestly, I didn't think he'd make any return," veteran forward Kevin Puryear admitted 24 hours earlier, after a Mizzou practice. It was only Porter's fourth practice since doctors cleared him to return in mid-February from back surgery, according to a team official, and he was back to looking like his old self: a stretch-4, with the emphasis on "stretch." Long and impossibly thin, he's just as comfortable navigating the paint as he is spotting up from beyond the arc, which makes him a matchup nightmare for opponents.

At one point during the session, Porter cut through the lane like a blur and went up and over 6-2 guard Jordan Geist for an easy layup.

"Great flash!" an assistant coach shouted. "Great flash!"

A few moments later, Porter showed the catch-and-shoot part of his game, draining a fading 3-point attempt to end the 5-on-5 half-court drill. Martin ordered Porter to make five straight free throws, and only then practice would be over. Porter needed only seven attempts (he missed the second before draining the final five in a row).

"I didn't think he'd come back at all this season with the injury he had," Puryear said. "... But that's a testament to him to be playing in that kind of pain and continue to play at the high level he was. I think he's really going to take his game to another level that he's now 100 percent healthy."

But as coaches would explain of the situation, there is a difference between being healthy and feeling healthy. And for the past couple weeks, Porter had been caught somewhere in between. After months of recovery, his body was ready, but his confidence lagged. He could flash through the lane for a layup in practice, but leading into this week, he hadn't quite felt the familiar burst in his legs, and that was holding him back.

Porter's lack of confidence was understandable, given that there wasn't one moment, one wrong move that he can point to as the catalyst of his injury.

Pain in his back had escalated from nagging to something worse prior to the season opener against Iowa State. He complained to Martin before tipoff he wasn't feeling right, but Martin forgot to remove him from the starting lineup. It was Martin's first game at Missouri since he left the same position at Cal, and it slipped his mind amid the commotion, he said. Just two minutes in, after scoring only two points, Porter pulled himself off the court despite no obvious signs of injury.

It was a bizarre scene to watch unfold. There was no devastating visual -- a la Gordon Hayward of the Boston Celtics crumpling to the floor last October -- to signal that Porter would be out for an extended period of time. There were only questions about what happened and how serious the injury was. Some speculated that it was his hip, but they were misinformed.

Eleven days later, on Nov. 21, Porter underwent surgery in Dallas: a microdiscectomy of the L3-L4 spinal disks that would "likely cause him to miss the remainder of the season," according to the school's official news release. The preseason co-favorite to win SEC Player of the Year and go on to become one of the top picks in the draft was gone, just like that, presumably not to be seen again until he comes to an NBA arena near you.

Perennial NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving, whose lone season at Duke was cut to just 11 games by a toe injury, was even asked about Porter's status, telling reporters, "I'm pretty sure NBA scouts have seen enough of him to know whether he's going to be in the top three or two."

Fans who showed up early to Missouri's final home game saw a little of what could be when Michael Porter Jr. plays in the SEC tournament this week. Denny Medley/USA TODAY Sports

But Porter didn't take that knowledge and skip ahead to the draft process. He never checked out on Missouri, continuing to work out with the team and saying in a school-issued statement before Saturday's game against Arkansas, "The plan is to keep working, with an eye on potentially playing at the SEC tournament and helping our squad be successful in the postseason."

Martin told reporters on Wednesday that while Porter wouldn't start, he could log fairly significant minutes in the team's first game of the SEC tournament on Thursday.

"He could play 20-25 minutes," Martin said. "It's really how I feel, the flow of the game, and how he feels. I don't have it in my head to say, 'He's playing this many minutes and that's it.' ... But I'd be surprised if he played 30 minutes."

All this must be exciting news for Missouri fans, but the fact of the matter is this team has already done enough without its star player to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament beginning next week.

Not only have the Tigers survived without Porter, but they've also surpassed all reasonable expectations, going 20-11, including the program's first win against blue blood Kentucky.

On Saturday, Missouri beat the pressure defense of Arkansas to win 77-67 and finish with a winning record in SEC play for the first time since the 2012-13 season. As the final seconds ticked away, Martin turned to the crowd and gave them a round of applause for a change.

Winning 20 games was something even he admitted he didn't see coming.

"No, no," Martin said afterward. "Not with the roster we had returning. ... Even with Mike and those guys, it's so hard."

The key to Missouri's turnaround, though, was that it wasn't just "Mike and those guys." When Porter went down, Martin never even addressed the injury with the team. He didn't need to, he said. They just kept their heads down and fought through some early growing pains and a couple of mini losing streaks to become one of the more well-rounded teams in the SEC. Their identity, players said, was that of toughness and good defense.

If anything, Porter's injury became fuel for a team that felt disrespected in his absence. Veteran guard Jordan Barnett said he couldn't help noticing people's attitudes toward the team shift. One moment they were telling him, "This might be the year you win a championship!" and the next it was a conciliatory, "Keep pushing, guys, and everything will be OK."

It felt like a funeral, and that was after only one game ... which they just so happened to win without their supposed savior. Not that anyone really noticed.

"It's somewhat baffling to people that we actually got scholarships to play Division I basketball here," Puryear said in mocking tone. "But I think we've been counted out my whole career here, so it's nothing new to me and the returning guys. It was just time for us to put our hard hat on and go to work."

Veterans such as Puryear and Barnett, who iced the game against Arkansas with a 3-pointer, stepped up in a big way this season. Meanwhile, newly added grad transfer Kassius Robertson went from an afterthought to one of the best shooters in the SEC, averaging 16.5 points while handling point guard duties when three of the team's primary ball handlers went down because of injuries. Freshmen such as Jeremiah Tilmon also emerged as scoring threats, pouring in a career-high 17 points to go with eight rebounds against Arkansas.

After the game, Razorbacks coach Mike Anderson was asked whether preparing for Porter and then having him ultimately sit out changed his game plan.

"Didn't change anything," he said matter-of-factly. "There's another Porter."

In fact, there is, and he goes by Jontay.

You might have missed him, given all the hoopla surrounding Michael, but Jontay Porter is proving to be no one's second fiddle. He reclassified to play with his older brother -- he should be a senior in high school right now -- and still managed to be considered the 25th-best prospect in the 2017 class, according to ESPN.

He's 6-10, just like Michael, but Jontay plays with a little less flash. He's thicker through the middle and can bang inside more like a true power forward while also possessing the kind of shooter's touch that led him to go 4-for-4 on 3-pointers against Vanderbilt and 2-for-4 against Arkansas. His cumulative line in back-to-back games: 43 points, 15 rebounds and a pair of blocks.

Barnett, who remembers too well the pain of finishing 8-24 last season, said the inside presence Porter and Tilmon have brought has made all the difference in the world. Missouri is 15-1 when Porter scores in double digits.

It hasn't been the season Jontay Porter, left, expected without his brother Michael, right, on the court, but Jontay has still come up big for Missouri. AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

"For someone who just turned 18 and isn't even supposed to be in college, he matured so quick," Barnett said of Jontay Porter. "He brings so much to the table, it's insane. The fact that he's 6-10, can guard the post, is a really good shot-blocker, is a really good shooter, is a really good passer, is extremely high-IQ basketball player -- and for someone at that age to bring all that to the table -- is really special. I honestly don't think there's a better big man in the country."

Honestly, there are few people, if any, who saw that statement being a remote possibility a month ago. Ask Jontay, and he didn't see the season playing out this way, either.

"It's been completely different from what I expected a little bit," he said after scoring a team-high 19 points against Arkansas. "I expected to play with Michael the whole year. I expected to do a lot of things. But it's been amazing what this team has done despite losing the best player in the country. It's crazy how we've stuck together despite everyone saying we're not going to do anything without Mike. It's been awesome. Hopefully he gets right, and he can join us, and we can make a run at this thing."

Martin, for his part, tried to downplay the excitement of adding a player of Michael Porter Jr.'s caliber to the mix so late the game. If anything, Martin said, it was like icing on the cake.

But the coach, who suffered multiple injuries during his playing career, was careful to add that the player we all expected coming into the season might not be the one we get right away.

"Is he 100 percent? Probably not," Martin said. "But he's game-ready."

And that's better than nothing after weeks of waiting.

Missouri improved as a team with news of Porter's return on Wednesday. The only question now is how much better the Tigers will be -- or, better yet, how much further he can take them.