COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The kid with "Hollywood" embroidered on his backpack sought the spotlight. You're damn right that was fitting for Michael Porter Jr.

The best player Missouri basketball never saw signed autographs, chatted up fans and posed for at least 20 -- maybe 30 -- pictures as Mizzou Arena emptied out Saturday night. He was not boastful, nor was he preening.

But it was clear he sure wanted to be there to soak up some of what he has missed.

The former No. 1 prospect, who has played all of two minutes this season, literally stayed until they turned out the lights. He flashed that winning smile for every last selfie and bro hug.

"It's been tough to watch it for sure," Porter said of a team and program that soared without him this season. "College is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I haven't been able to be part of it thus far. Right now, this is an opportunity to be a servant, to serve people."

Mizzou fans may never see him play beyond those two minutes in the season opener against Iowa State on Nov. 10, 2017, but they can never call him a prima donna following Saturday's 77-67 win over Arkansas in the Tigers' regular-season finale.

No matter what becomes of Porter, his legacy here will be one-and-definitely-not done. His arrival helped Mizzou Arena sell out every game for the first time. Butts might not have been in every seat every night, but that's hardly the point.

People cared again. Fans, national media -- hell, the returning players who survived Kim Anderson's depressing eight-win final season in 2016-17.

"It's been a wild ride, man," senior Jordan Barnett said.

You have no idea. The silky 6-foot-10 Porter was supposed to carry the Tigers on his back. The poetic savagery of his back actually giving out affected, but didn't define, this Missouri season. In between that November surgery and Saturday's regular-season finale, the Tigers went 20-11 and are dancing for the first time in five years.

That's more victories than Missouri has acquired the last two seasons combined. That's 12 more than last season's 8-24 slog making this Porter-less turnaround one of the most significant in the country.

"This team used his injury and the fact everybody counted us out when he went out that we wouldn't be good. We were able to channel that energy," Barnett said after posting a double-double in his final home game on Senior Night.

On Saturday, the entire program was finally ready to back away from that back surgery and put its own stamp on the season.

Graduate transfer Kassius Robertson arrived from Canisius and promptly led the SEC in three-point accuracy. Six players stayed from last season. Because of injuries and attrition, one of them -- junior Jordan Geist -- is the team's only true point guard.

Geist -- a slight, try-hard, 6-foot-2, 180-pound kid -- put up 24,000 shots alone in April working out.

"That's more than some dudes do in the [entire] summer," coach Cuonzo Martin said.

Michael's little brother Jontay Porter reclassified out of his Seattle high school so he could play this one precious season. When Michael didn't play (again), Arkansas coach Mike Anderson hardly noticed. Jontay followed a career-high 24 against Vanderbilt with 19 points, eight rebounds and four assists against the Hogs.

"It didn't change anything," Anderson said of Michael's absence. "There's another Porter."

But you never could get away from what this team was supposed to be about. In early February. a doctor declared Michael Porter healthy. Since then, it's been almost day-to-day drama.

Will he or won't he play? 

Saturday was trending toward the closest Porter would get back on the floor. Then, in a Saturday morning statement, he declared himself out (again). Next week's SEC Tournament remains a possibility.

But assuming his complete health and the NBA's interest, he'll never play at Mizzou Arena again. It seemed like a good time, then, to ask how the season would have gone with him.

"I think we'd be better," Porter said. "I think I'd bring some stuff to the table for sure. A lot of these close games we lost we could have put them away. I bring something to the table not a lot of people bring. But at the same time, a 12-game difference …"

That credit ultimately has to go to the 46-year-old Martin, who posted the sixth 20-win season at his fourth school in a 10-year career.

"He deserves all the credit," Michael Porter said of Martin. "We had a whole system in place. Then the first game he had to change everything. The offense [was] revolving around me. He changed everything and, at the same time, got everybody to buy in. He did it just like that. We're a [NCAA] tournament team now."

The resurrection and salvation here went on both without Porter and because of him. It some small way, basketball elevated an entire campus. Two-and-a-half years ago, the Mizzou brand was burned to the ground with racial protests that became national news.

By the time Martin had arrived with a star player and makeover in tow, the issues were still there. Over a two-year period, Mizzou lost 40 percent of its freshman enrollment. Closed dorms were being rented out for home football games.

The issues have faded. Enrollment is up. A large part of the administration that let the unrest fester in the first place has been replaced. Mizzou's brand was wounded when the football team threatened a boycott over those racial issues in 2015. It's OK to assert this basketball team helped take some of that despair away.

"We don't want anything weak around us," Martin said Saturday night. "Don't let a loss define you. Life is too short to put your head down. No man should walk with his head down."

And so they didn't -- Martin, Porter and these Tigers.

"I know a lot of people were expecting me to be on the court," Porter said. "But it's also been a pleasure watching these dudes without me."