Guys, this is gonna be a tough team to watch. There are going to be stretches in every game that make you want to claw your eyes out.
Some of it you'll be able to live with because it's young guys making mistakes. Some of it (throwing back to back inbounds passes away so quickly that Cuonzo Martin said he wasn't even sure what happened because he had turned around to say something to someone on the bench) just shouldn't happen, no matter whether you're a fifth-year senior or a fifth-grader.
Jordan Geist is going to take so much more crap than he deserves this year. He's the guy shooting the ball late because nobody else appears to get open or to really want to shoot the ball late. Give Geist this: He won't shy away from the spotlight. He'll take the tough shots and he'll take the bullets if he misses them. Geist shouldn't be the guy that draws the ire of fans, but I'm sure he will be.
If second half Jeremiah Tilmon was all the time Jeremiah Tilmon, Missouri might be pretty good. But I've seen nothing that indicates Tilmon is ready to do that (or anything else) on a consistent basis. Cuonzo even said after the game he was crossing his fingers that he could get this performance again. You'd like to be able to count on him a little bit more than that.
I'm ready to see more Reed Nikko. Cuonzo praised him after the game and said he should have played him more. He said Reed always knows where to be on defense and has been playing really well and he didn't play him enough. He's better than the alternative at this point.
The Tigers are going to need more out of Torrence Watson than they're getting right now.
Xavier Pinson is the kind of player that might send a coach to a padded room.
I know it's dangerous to question the coach of this team because it doesn't go over very well, but I can't figure out the offense. It's mostly wait for Geist to do something or throw the ball in the paint. I understand Cuonzo is a guy that runs a free-flowing system, that lets his players do their thing, but this team needs more structure. There was no sense of urgency in the last two minutes. Missouri was walking the ball up the floor. They wasted 15 seconds before fouling (Martin said they were supposed to foul a couple guys and he didn't know why they didn't do it). This isn't a great team by any means, but I thought the last few minutes they needed a little more kick in the pants.
Either way, this is going to be an up and down season. There will be a few nights when you can see it coming together. But mostly it's going to be a year that you hope makes them better next year.
Photos on the front, Mitch has a notebook coming and my column will post first thing in the morning (which is just a few hours from now). Thanks for reading.
Some of it you'll be able to live with because it's young guys making mistakes. Some of it (throwing back to back inbounds passes away so quickly that Cuonzo Martin said he wasn't even sure what happened because he had turned around to say something to someone on the bench) just shouldn't happen, no matter whether you're a fifth-year senior or a fifth-grader.
Jordan Geist is going to take so much more crap than he deserves this year. He's the guy shooting the ball late because nobody else appears to get open or to really want to shoot the ball late. Give Geist this: He won't shy away from the spotlight. He'll take the tough shots and he'll take the bullets if he misses them. Geist shouldn't be the guy that draws the ire of fans, but I'm sure he will be.
If second half Jeremiah Tilmon was all the time Jeremiah Tilmon, Missouri might be pretty good. But I've seen nothing that indicates Tilmon is ready to do that (or anything else) on a consistent basis. Cuonzo even said after the game he was crossing his fingers that he could get this performance again. You'd like to be able to count on him a little bit more than that.
I'm ready to see more Reed Nikko. Cuonzo praised him after the game and said he should have played him more. He said Reed always knows where to be on defense and has been playing really well and he didn't play him enough. He's better than the alternative at this point.
The Tigers are going to need more out of Torrence Watson than they're getting right now.
Xavier Pinson is the kind of player that might send a coach to a padded room.
I know it's dangerous to question the coach of this team because it doesn't go over very well, but I can't figure out the offense. It's mostly wait for Geist to do something or throw the ball in the paint. I understand Cuonzo is a guy that runs a free-flowing system, that lets his players do their thing, but this team needs more structure. There was no sense of urgency in the last two minutes. Missouri was walking the ball up the floor. They wasted 15 seconds before fouling (Martin said they were supposed to foul a couple guys and he didn't know why they didn't do it). This isn't a great team by any means, but I thought the last few minutes they needed a little more kick in the pants.
Either way, this is going to be an up and down season. There will be a few nights when you can see it coming together. But mostly it's going to be a year that you hope makes them better next year.
Photos on the front, Mitch has a notebook coming and my column will post first thing in the morning (which is just a few hours from now). Thanks for reading.
