*Really a tale of two halves. You knew coming in that these teams played completely opposite styles and the one that was able to play its style more would probably win. The first half was played at Mizzou's pace. It wasn't always pretty and I didn't think Mizzou was great in the first half, but they were getting up and down, forcing the Shockers to play a game they didn't want to play and got 13 Wichita State turnovers.
*In the second half, the Shockers were able to slow things down. Missouri is not a great halfcourt team. They're going to have to play fast to win games this year. They weren't able to do it for most of the second half.
Then in the final five minutes, Mizzou sped it back up again. The Tigers scored 19 points in four minutes to turn a ten point deficit into a tie game. Give them some serious credit. Down ten with 5:15 to go, not many people here (me included) probably thought they were gonna find a way.
*It seemed Mizzou's main answer to the question what should we do? was "Shoot a three." That was not a particularly good idea on this night. Honestly, I'm not sure it's a particularly good idea on any night for anyone other than
D'Moi Hodge. But especially on this night. Offensive freedom is cool, but at some point if you're 6/24 probably ought to put it in the holster a few times.
*The one thing definitively worse than Missouri's three-point shooting was the broadcast. In all aspects. From the very beginning.
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*Missouri really could have used
Isiaih Mosley. The Tigers were struggling to find a point and to make a shot. Those are things Mosley does pretty well.
*I was ready to bury
Sean East with about ten minutes left. But he made some big plays to help the Tigers get back in it. 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 5-6 from the line when nobody else could make one. He often looks out of control, but he was huge tonight.
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Aidan Shaw is going to have to play big minutes for this team. He'll make mistakes, but you can live with mistakes of aggression. He's tenacious and he doesn't back down.
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D'Moi Hodge is Missouri's best player. That was not a thing I expected to say before the season. However, I would advise that the next time his team is up three with 32 seconds to go he not take a three with 20 seconds left on the shot clock. Tre Gomillion really bailed him out with a big rebound.
*Interesting that on the last offensive possession in regulation
Kobe Brown was on the bench. Not saying it's wrong, he wasn't good tonight, just found it interesting.
*Hell of an inbounds pass from East and a near miracle from
Tre Gomillion. Came awfully close to winning it. Not gonna get a much better opportunity than that with 2.3 seconds left.
*Thought Mizzou played elite free throw defense this evening. As far as actual defense goes, Gomillion is very good at it. He's going to frustrate some people this year.
*Good test for this team. I think fans got a little bit of a false sense of how good they were after the Seven Little Sisters of the Poor tour. A road game at Wichita State is a good test. Missouri could have lost that game and it wouldn't have been an indictment on the team or the season. The fact that they won it, down one of their top seven players, down 10 points with five minutes to play is a heck of a statement. That's the kind of win you look back on down the road and realize it was even bigger than you initially thought. SEMO on Sunday is a win. Missouri is going to be 9-0 when kansas comes to town in 11 days. So that should be fun.