*I figured this game was over about 15 minute before tipoff when we found out
Kobe Brown wasn't playing. Alabama is legit. I agree with
Dennis Gates that the Tide is the best team in the country. Mizzou would probably lose to them at full strength more often than not. They weren't winning without their best player. Just a bad day for ankles in the Show-Me State.
*That said, Missouri didn't just roll over and die. They were in a tie game late in the first half before an Alabama run in the final two minutes (that's a little bit of a trend against the Tigers this year and it's a little concerning). Mizzou even made a couple of pushes to get it back to 12 or 13 in the second half. You never really thought they were going to win, but they were a couple of baskets away from making it interesting.
*But they didn't make very many baskets. 32% from the field. 3/28 from three (that's virtually impossible). 7/16 on layups. You may not beat anybody in the SEC shooting the ball like that. You're definitely not beating the league's best team. I didn't think Missouri was taking bad shots for the most part. They just didn't go in. Bad day to have a bad day.
*It's worth monitoring the three-point shooting of
Sean East and
D'Moi Hodge. Hodge is now 4/25 in his last four games. East looks like he isn't really even taking threes anymore. Is this a slump or a sign that when the competition ramps up, these guys aren't great shooters? I don't know yet.
*I'm not worried about
Isiaiah Mosley. He's 1/12 from three in two games, but the jumper is going to take a little game time to get there. Gates said after the game he thought he played Mosley too much and caused him to lose his legs a little bit. Even without the three being a weapon he had 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and an assists. You'd like to cut down on the four turnovers, but Alabama's really good and he's now played twice in a month. I saw a lot of things to like out of him. I said earlier in the year I wasn't sure this team needed him. I was wrong. He's going to be a vital piece.
*This was never a game I counted as a win, Kobe Brown or not. In my path to the tournament, I had this as a loss. Missouri now faces a five-game stretch in which the goal is 4-1. You're at Ole Miss Tuesday and that needs to be a win. Then you have Iowa State and LSU at home, at Mississippi State and home against South Carolina. 5-0 is possible there, but 4-1 is the goal. 3-2 doesn't kill you, but 4-1 is the goal. If you win four of the next five, you're 18-6 and you're on track for the tourney bid. That's a success for sure. If by sitting Kobe today you made sure he was healthy for those games, it's 100% the right move.
PS: Patrick Mahomes may not be human. And I'm a big Chad Henne fan tonight too. If the guy that was mad at me for a tweet about Nick Bolton recovering a game changing fumble during the Mizzou basketball game is a subscriber (which I highly doubt) I would like to take this chance to personally apologize to you for the great pain it caused.