Well I had this all written. And then the last minute happened. Good Lord. Believe it or not, this does happen to other teams. Missouri fans think they’re cursed and they only lose games this way. Sometimes you get the bounce.
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Credit
D’Moi Hodge for somehow finding a way to keep the ball alive after he had fallen down. The unsung hero there is Hodge finding a way to shovel the ball to
DeAndre Gholston while he was lying flat on his stomach.
That wasn’t the only play those two made. Hodge and Gholston really saved the day in the second half. Both were aggressive, both hit some big shots. Gholston had 16 all after the break. Hodge ended up with 15, 4 rebounds and 3 assists and really brought the energy in the second half when Mizzou looked like it was going to run away. They were needed.
Kobe Brown was nowhere to be seen in the second half.
Noah Carter didn’t have a very good day.
Combined stats from the “power forwards” (Carter and Brown): 15 points (5-10 shooting), 8 rebounds, 8 turnovers. Missouri needs better than that to beat good competition. It worked today. It probably won’t work too often.
This is a flawed team. It’s not always going to look pretty. But they play tough and they play hard and they’re generally fun to watch. That’s a step forward. Understand there are going to be some bumps along the way.
This is a big win. This is the kind of game that can determine whether this is an NIT team with a chance maybe to be a little bit better. I know everyone wants to win the Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky type games, but winning games like this and Wichita State signify progress. This season was never about Missouri being a top 20 team. It was about them looking improved from last year. So far they have.
Best defensive effort we’ve seen.
Dennis Gates threw in some zone and after the terrible start, Mizzou held UCF down. I wasn’t sure the Tigers could win a game that wasn’t played in the 80s. They did. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a great defensive team. But it was better today than it’s been.
Gates gets credit for playing it out in the final 30 seconds. If his team doesn't get a stop there, the game might be over. But he trusted the defense and let his team go without a timeout with eight seconds left. It worked. If it didn't work, he might be getting criticized. But it did.
The best defense might have come at the free throw line. Three consecutive missed free throws by
Brandon Suggs in a 63-60 game with a little more than three minutes left is ROUGH for the Knights.
Ronnie DeGray was big down the stretch. Made a couple of free throws, got a huge steal. Gotta have guys who aren’t stars make plays sometimes. He did today.
Isiaih Mosley played so that's good. Only played ten minutes. Missed all four of his shots but did have four assists. It's obviously going to still take a while to integrate him. I guess the goal at this point is to get to about February and have him know his role and play it well. But at least we don't have to ask why he didn't play.
I think we’re going to see a reduction in minutes for
Tre Gomillion. He’s a good role player, a nice story. I don’t think he can be a factor as you get into regular high major competition.
What does this team do well offensively if the three isn’t falling? They were above 50% for the day (13-25). They shot more threes than twos (26 to 21). That just doesn’t seem like a sustainable recipe to me.
Overall, hell of a win. You take them any way you can get them. 10-1 with three tough ones coming up. Find a way to even get one of the next three and you're feeling pretty good about yourself headed into 2023.
