1. Ugly, UGLY game. This has been Mizzou's MO of late. Slow down the pace, play tough defense, contest shots, make enough buckets to cover the difference. Unfortunately, that's aTm's game today, and they were better at it than us. They rank 215th nationally in pace, 11th in defensive efficiency. Mizzou sits at 333rd and 88th respectively.
2. Tigers were never out of the game until the last 2 mintues, but I didn't feel aside from about 5 total minutes, that they were ever really "in" it. I believe I heard that this was the 5th game aTm's entire roster had been able, and did in fact, play on the court together. I don't know that they're elite, but they're now more similar to the team they were in November (when they ran WVU off a neutral court) than they were when they got blown out by Florida and Bama in back to back games. They currently rank 33rd in efficiency. It's not a bad loss, but it's a loss. And it's a lost opportunity for a quality win. There's a lot of those in this conference. I'm not sure aTm is going to rip off a bunch of wins in a row, but it wouldn't shock me. This is a team that early (when together) won at USC and nearly took down Arizona. They're quality.
3. The item that should get commentary. The shooting. The Tigers held aTm to 39% from the floor, 3-17 (18%) from three, and aTm only shot 7-11 at the line. That's a good defensive effort. Mizzou, on the other hand, shot 28% from the floor, 4-18 from three (22%) and 15-20 from the line. We scored 49 points. 34 points from the floor. You can't win that way. It wasn't taking quick threes so much as it was we could simply not score inside. We shot 36 two point attempts, made 9. Part of this is due to aTm's elite inside defensive game, it's part that we couldn't hit shit. It wasn't a great matchup for a Mizzou team trying to slow it down. It was worse when you couldn't hit ocean from a boat.
4. Turnovers were a bit of a problem, but the last stat I saw is the difference was 7-4. That's pretty much irrelevant in the final tally. Didn't help, shouldn't have hurt. But Mizzou simply isn't getting easy stops with turnovers. It's not our identity, and it hurts in games like this.
5. Tigers got killed on the glass 49-38. I don't find that surprising since aTm is a big, atheltic, good rebounding team. But, it hurt. We need to be better. If it was an outlier, fine. But this is becoming a trend.
6. Didn't find the officiating to be bad. I struggle to ever praise a group and say it was great, but it's barely worth mentioning. It was a physical game and only 30 total fouls were called. Mizzou could/should have exploited it more, but they didn't.
7. I mentioned that Barnett, Porter and Robertson had 5 total points at half. Well...they finished with 18. So 13 is better than 5, but that's just poor. Porter you can understand a little, as he was dealing with some really big, really good, defenders. The other two were mostly non-factors. We didn't have a single scorer in double digits. Barnett, Tilmon and Geist each had 9. You'll take that most nights out of two of the three, but not when your big three offensively do very little.
8. First half v. Second Half -- Lately, there's no doubt Mizzou has gotten off to slow starts. I don't know that the Tennessee game is a great example of that (27-27 at half, 59-56 final), but certainly UGA, Arkansas and today. But with today, outside of the first 6 minutes, I don't know that we were that much better in the 2nd. Shot more free throws, thanks in part to two freebies to start the half.
9. This is one of the few times where I actually thought the offensive game plan wasn't good enough. The few runs we had were sandwiched around a three or a couple free throws. Tilmon got himself a few good looks, but we're looking at an individual level. The movement was slow, the spacing was great and we didn't make shots to cover up for it. 49 points is the result.
10. Tier Update
Tier A: 3-5
Tier B: 1-0 (although UGA is floating around that cut line, and could add a second; but Illinois fell off)
We have at least 6 tier A games remaining, 4 Tier B games remaining.
For comparison purposes, the last four in a season ago:
K-State (0 bad losses)
Tier A: 6-11
Tier B: 3-1
USC (1 bad loss)
Tier A: 4-7
Tier B: 0-2
Providence (3 bad losses)
Tier A: 4-8
Tier B: 6-1
Wake (0 bad losses)
Tier A: 2-12
Tier B: 5-1
I don't know why it happened, but during the game, Mizzou's pomeroy rating hit a season high, at #32. Post game, dropped to #35.
Big one coming up Wednesday.
2. Tigers were never out of the game until the last 2 mintues, but I didn't feel aside from about 5 total minutes, that they were ever really "in" it. I believe I heard that this was the 5th game aTm's entire roster had been able, and did in fact, play on the court together. I don't know that they're elite, but they're now more similar to the team they were in November (when they ran WVU off a neutral court) than they were when they got blown out by Florida and Bama in back to back games. They currently rank 33rd in efficiency. It's not a bad loss, but it's a loss. And it's a lost opportunity for a quality win. There's a lot of those in this conference. I'm not sure aTm is going to rip off a bunch of wins in a row, but it wouldn't shock me. This is a team that early (when together) won at USC and nearly took down Arizona. They're quality.
3. The item that should get commentary. The shooting. The Tigers held aTm to 39% from the floor, 3-17 (18%) from three, and aTm only shot 7-11 at the line. That's a good defensive effort. Mizzou, on the other hand, shot 28% from the floor, 4-18 from three (22%) and 15-20 from the line. We scored 49 points. 34 points from the floor. You can't win that way. It wasn't taking quick threes so much as it was we could simply not score inside. We shot 36 two point attempts, made 9. Part of this is due to aTm's elite inside defensive game, it's part that we couldn't hit shit. It wasn't a great matchup for a Mizzou team trying to slow it down. It was worse when you couldn't hit ocean from a boat.
4. Turnovers were a bit of a problem, but the last stat I saw is the difference was 7-4. That's pretty much irrelevant in the final tally. Didn't help, shouldn't have hurt. But Mizzou simply isn't getting easy stops with turnovers. It's not our identity, and it hurts in games like this.
5. Tigers got killed on the glass 49-38. I don't find that surprising since aTm is a big, atheltic, good rebounding team. But, it hurt. We need to be better. If it was an outlier, fine. But this is becoming a trend.
6. Didn't find the officiating to be bad. I struggle to ever praise a group and say it was great, but it's barely worth mentioning. It was a physical game and only 30 total fouls were called. Mizzou could/should have exploited it more, but they didn't.
7. I mentioned that Barnett, Porter and Robertson had 5 total points at half. Well...they finished with 18. So 13 is better than 5, but that's just poor. Porter you can understand a little, as he was dealing with some really big, really good, defenders. The other two were mostly non-factors. We didn't have a single scorer in double digits. Barnett, Tilmon and Geist each had 9. You'll take that most nights out of two of the three, but not when your big three offensively do very little.
8. First half v. Second Half -- Lately, there's no doubt Mizzou has gotten off to slow starts. I don't know that the Tennessee game is a great example of that (27-27 at half, 59-56 final), but certainly UGA, Arkansas and today. But with today, outside of the first 6 minutes, I don't know that we were that much better in the 2nd. Shot more free throws, thanks in part to two freebies to start the half.
9. This is one of the few times where I actually thought the offensive game plan wasn't good enough. The few runs we had were sandwiched around a three or a couple free throws. Tilmon got himself a few good looks, but we're looking at an individual level. The movement was slow, the spacing was great and we didn't make shots to cover up for it. 49 points is the result.
10. Tier Update
Tier A: 3-5
Tier B: 1-0 (although UGA is floating around that cut line, and could add a second; but Illinois fell off)
We have at least 6 tier A games remaining, 4 Tier B games remaining.
For comparison purposes, the last four in a season ago:
K-State (0 bad losses)
Tier A: 6-11
Tier B: 3-1
USC (1 bad loss)
Tier A: 4-7
Tier B: 0-2
Providence (3 bad losses)
Tier A: 4-8
Tier B: 6-1
Wake (0 bad losses)
Tier A: 2-12
Tier B: 5-1
I don't know why it happened, but during the game, Mizzou's pomeroy rating hit a season high, at #32. Post game, dropped to #35.
Big one coming up Wednesday.
