YOU don’t pull off an extensive rebuilding act in a major conference without contributions from a great many. Such has been the case at Missouri.

Who supplies the motivation? Coach Mike Anderson. Who provides the scoring? Senior forward DeMarre Carroll. Who provides the rebounding? Senior forward Leo Lyons. Who provides the steals? Junior guard J.T. Tiller.

Zaire Taylor, a junior guard from Staten Island, has his category as well, and it might be bigger than all of the aforementioned. There may not be an official statistic for it, and there may not be an award for it at season’s end, but make no mistake, when the resurgent Tigers need a buzzer beater, it’s Taylor time.

“It’s no secret, put the ball in Zaire’s hands and let him go to work,” Anderson said. “His confidence has to be soaring. You have to admire a guy like that, who wants to make plays down the road.”

Taylor doesn’t have the greatest numbers on the team, but he has started all 26 games, and has made the most of every minute, especially the final one. The 6-foot-4, 189-pound transfer from Delaware is averaging 5.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists.

But clearly his true calling is the late theatrics. On Feb. 4, Taylor popped the winning three-point play with 5.5 seconds remaining in a 69-65 victory at Texas.

On Feb. 9, Taylor’s 10-foot jumper with 1.3 seconds left gave the Tigers a 62-60 victory over Kansas.

“It’s definitely a good feeling to be able to contribute, to be able to be counted on,” Taylor said, humbly. “The support we’ve been getting on campus, in all of Columbia, in all of Missouri, it’s just unbelievable.”

That’s what usually happens when a program rolls up a 22-4 record, including a 9-2 mark in the Big 12, after several seasons mired in mediocrity. Keep in mind, the No. 11 Tigers haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2003.

“We’re still growing as a team. There’s still so much we can do,” Taylor said. “We haven’t reached our potential yet, and it’s important to put everything we’ve already done in the past.”

Taylor has the right perspective, he says all the right things, because he’s been on the other side of success. In two years with the Blue Hens, he lost 47 times.

“I’ve learned not to take anything for granted here,” Taylor said. “We just didn’t have much success at Delaware. Here, we’ve been able to have some success, and we’re feeding off that. The atmosphere that we play around in the Big 12 is unbelievable. It’s easy to get motivated.”

The results illustrate that. The Tigers already have three wins over ranked teams. They have nine players who average at least two rebounds a game, including Lyons (5.7). And they have topped 100 points three times.

“Our whole mentality is defense, so, in that regard, we want our defense to make our offense,” said Carroll, the Tigers’ leading scorer at 17.3 points. “We’ve got big guys who can run and we can fill lanes, so we like to get the ball up and down. Like Coach says, we like to have chaos, crazy chaos.”

Which is just fine by Taylor, who began his career at Curtis High before moving onto Charis Prep in North Carolina. He averages

1.3 steals and is not afraid to get dirty, as his 2.3 fouls per game clearly show.

“Every game in this league is tough, so you have to play tough,” Taylor said. “Nothing is a gimme here. We know that if we sit around and celebrate what we’ve already done, it’s not going to be good in the long run.”

We will see that theory in action today at 1:30 p.m., when Mizzou battles an inferior Colorado team (9-16, 1-10) on the road.

“Our mentality is if people are going to beat us, make them beat us at our own game,” said Tiller, who leads the team in steals (2.0). “We’ve got to keep running because that’s how we practice and that’s how we’re going to get our wins.”

And if that doesn’t work, just make sure Taylor has the ball in the final seconds.

tsullivan@nypost.com