Best game of the year start to finish. Good defensive effort (Cuonzo Martin said they were willing to give up a certain amount to Austin Wiley because you aren't going to stop everything against Auburn). Great offensive effort, led by Dru Smith and Xavier Pinson who are guys you can build around and carry the rest of this year and into next.
I said last week I thought this team was closer than a lot of people did. They've been in a lot of games they haven't finished. How different does this look if you finish against Xavier, you beat Charleston Southern and you manage to sweep Texas A&M which you should have? That would have you 16-9 and in position to make a late season run to the tournament. Even Bruce Pearl said after the game there's just not that big a difference between being where Auburn is and where Missouri is. The margin is razor thin. You are what your record says you are and Missouri isn't all that good, but they aren't far from being a solid team. So that's your hope for next year.
As for the rest of this year, there's still something to play for. You get Ole Miss twice, an Arkansas team that is leaking oil, Vanderbilt on the road and then Mississippi State and Alabama at home. None of those game are certain losses. I'm not saying Missouri's going to win them all, but 4-2 is certainly doable and maybe even 5-1. If you can do that, you go to Nashville with a shot at the NIT (assuming you're not going to win four in four days and make the real tournament). It's not where you want to be, but considering where you were two or three weeks ago, it's something to shoot for. And with Pinson and Dru playing well, Kobe Brown coming back strong today, Reed Nikko playing well and Tray Jackson hitting his stride, there are reasons to hope. Hope is good.
I think fans are starting to see what it does for the team if they show up. It helps to have Saturday afternoon games, but this is two straight home games of more than 11000. I would assume most of the people that were here for those games had fun. Maybe they'll come back. Maybe you can build a little something with your fanbase in the next three weeks. Of course, a good start to that would be beating Ole Miss on Tuesday. We'll see how that goes.
Last thing and I purposely put it last so it isn't the focus, but we've got to find some refs that don't ruin games. For 30 minutes, this was a well-paced, fun game with flow. Then the officials absolutely destroyed it and lost control. Again. 56 fouls and 75 free throws is stupid. And it's commonplace in this league.
Enjoy the night, we'll be back at it tomorrow.
I said last week I thought this team was closer than a lot of people did. They've been in a lot of games they haven't finished. How different does this look if you finish against Xavier, you beat Charleston Southern and you manage to sweep Texas A&M which you should have? That would have you 16-9 and in position to make a late season run to the tournament. Even Bruce Pearl said after the game there's just not that big a difference between being where Auburn is and where Missouri is. The margin is razor thin. You are what your record says you are and Missouri isn't all that good, but they aren't far from being a solid team. So that's your hope for next year.
As for the rest of this year, there's still something to play for. You get Ole Miss twice, an Arkansas team that is leaking oil, Vanderbilt on the road and then Mississippi State and Alabama at home. None of those game are certain losses. I'm not saying Missouri's going to win them all, but 4-2 is certainly doable and maybe even 5-1. If you can do that, you go to Nashville with a shot at the NIT (assuming you're not going to win four in four days and make the real tournament). It's not where you want to be, but considering where you were two or three weeks ago, it's something to shoot for. And with Pinson and Dru playing well, Kobe Brown coming back strong today, Reed Nikko playing well and Tray Jackson hitting his stride, there are reasons to hope. Hope is good.
I think fans are starting to see what it does for the team if they show up. It helps to have Saturday afternoon games, but this is two straight home games of more than 11000. I would assume most of the people that were here for those games had fun. Maybe they'll come back. Maybe you can build a little something with your fanbase in the next three weeks. Of course, a good start to that would be beating Ole Miss on Tuesday. We'll see how that goes.
Last thing and I purposely put it last so it isn't the focus, but we've got to find some refs that don't ruin games. For 30 minutes, this was a well-paced, fun game with flow. Then the officials absolutely destroyed it and lost control. Again. 56 fouls and 75 free throws is stupid. And it's commonplace in this league.
Enjoy the night, we'll be back at it tomorrow.
