That's a tough game to react to. On one hand, you have to give credit to this team. The minute we found out Jeremiah Tilmon wouldn't play, this went from a likely win to a likely loss. Add in Kobe Brown getting hurt (Cuonzo said he was cramping) and Mitchell Smith fouling out, and Missouri really had no business winning that game. Thanks to some big shots by Torrence Watson and Drew Buggs and a clutch sequence by Parker Braun, they almost did anyway. It's hard to feel bad about a loss without your starting frontcourt playing basically the whole second half.
That being said, given the expectations Missouri has played its way into for this season, there are no moral victories at this point. And losing this game hurts. For one, Mizzou has now completely squandered the momentum it gained last week by losing two games in a row. It also missed out on consecutive opportunities for Quadrant I wins and there are not many more of those left on the schedule. In fact, as of today, there's only one: at Florida. That could change if the LSU game gets made up, but still, given where we know Mizzou stood this morning and its lack of potential Q1 wins on the schedule compared to a lot of the other top-tier teams, it's now hard for me to see this team getting better than a five seed for the Big Dance, barring a run in the SEC Tournament.
Before getting to thoughts on the game, first want to say you have to feel for Jeremiah Tilmon. The kid has been through a lot. He lost his grandmother to COVID over the summer and apparently had another death in the family this week. Sometimes life comes before basketball. The question now is whether he will be back Tuesday. Asked after the game, Cuonzo Martin said "I don't know." That was it. I asked a team spokesperson and he said he doesn't believe there is any sort of mandatory quarantine for someone leaving the team for a bit, but obviously Tilmon will have to test negative to return to the floor on Tuesday at Georgia. Mizzou could certainly use him.
I thought Mitchell Smith played pretty well without Tilmon, but obviously staying on the floor was an issue. Parker Braun played the game of his career. I was most impressed with his poise at the end of regulation. It would have been easy for a player who hasn't been in that position very much to rush the shot once he got the feed from Dru Smith, but he coolly pump-faked and maneuvered around Connor Vanover. It would have been cool to see him go down as the hero. As noted above, he was far from the only player to make an unlikely contribution. Torrence Watson played 26 minutes and hit each of his first three three-pointers. T-Wat (I swear there is a pregame video in which he introduces himself as T-Wat and I think it's amazing) also had to play some four on the defensive end late in the game and mostly held his own. He's an easy kid to root for, so it was nice to see him play well. I'm not quite at the point where I believe he can be like a consistent double-digit scorer or anything, but I think I'd like to see both him and Mark Smith get four minutes or so early in a game and then you go with whoever can make a shot early. Because if Mark Smith isn't shooting well (the rule far more than the exception at this point) he's pretty brutal.
Thanks in part to Watson, Mizzou made 13 of 32 threes. Both of those numbers are season-highs. That amounts to 40.6 percent, quite a bit better than the season average coming in of 30.7 percent. That kept Mizzou in a game in which they could get almost nothing around the rim. All game, I said that was unsustainable, Mizzou needed to get more drives, but it (almost) worked out. I still don't think you can count on that type of shooting, and especially from those people (Watson, Mitchell Smith, Drew Buggs) night in and night out, but if it could continue in a game in which Tilmon plays and plays engaged, it would be beneficial to the offense.
Last thing, let's talk about the late-game execution. I haven't read the board at all yet, but I imagine Missouri's last two offensive possessions have drawn some ire. First of all, this team was destined to lose a close game eventually, and it did take some good execution just to get this game to overtime. Also, Cuonzo probably didn't ever envision he would field a lineup that included Torrence Watson and Parker Braun in the final minute of a close league game. All that said, there are a couple things that deserve some criticism — and I don't actually include the possession where Dru drove and kind of lost the ball/passed to Braun and he turned it over, because I'm fine with putting the ball in Dru's hands there. If there's one coaching decision I think you can criticize Martin on today, it was putting Javon Pickett in for Xavier Pinson in a defense-offense substitution. Pickett then immediately got beat on a back-door cut that led to an easy layup. It was probably the biggest basket of the game. I get that Pickett is a good defender, but he only played 8 minutes today (I guess his ankle is still bothering him?) and at that point hadn't been on the floor in about 24 minutes of game time. It's one of those moves where if it works and Pickett gets a big steal or something, Cuonzo looks like a genius, but it didn't so he has to bear some blame. The other problematic play was, no surprise, Pinson's last three. Cuonzo made it pretty clear after the game that a play had been called and, while he said Pinson had the green light to shoot if he was open, that was not the play. I haven't seen the replay, so I'm not sure where the play went wrong, and I certainly believe Cuonzo that he didn't instruct his team "everyone just stand there and watch X jack up a contested fadeaway" but you certainly would have liked to have at least seen a more clean look on that possession.
That being said, given the expectations Missouri has played its way into for this season, there are no moral victories at this point. And losing this game hurts. For one, Mizzou has now completely squandered the momentum it gained last week by losing two games in a row. It also missed out on consecutive opportunities for Quadrant I wins and there are not many more of those left on the schedule. In fact, as of today, there's only one: at Florida. That could change if the LSU game gets made up, but still, given where we know Mizzou stood this morning and its lack of potential Q1 wins on the schedule compared to a lot of the other top-tier teams, it's now hard for me to see this team getting better than a five seed for the Big Dance, barring a run in the SEC Tournament.
Before getting to thoughts on the game, first want to say you have to feel for Jeremiah Tilmon. The kid has been through a lot. He lost his grandmother to COVID over the summer and apparently had another death in the family this week. Sometimes life comes before basketball. The question now is whether he will be back Tuesday. Asked after the game, Cuonzo Martin said "I don't know." That was it. I asked a team spokesperson and he said he doesn't believe there is any sort of mandatory quarantine for someone leaving the team for a bit, but obviously Tilmon will have to test negative to return to the floor on Tuesday at Georgia. Mizzou could certainly use him.
I thought Mitchell Smith played pretty well without Tilmon, but obviously staying on the floor was an issue. Parker Braun played the game of his career. I was most impressed with his poise at the end of regulation. It would have been easy for a player who hasn't been in that position very much to rush the shot once he got the feed from Dru Smith, but he coolly pump-faked and maneuvered around Connor Vanover. It would have been cool to see him go down as the hero. As noted above, he was far from the only player to make an unlikely contribution. Torrence Watson played 26 minutes and hit each of his first three three-pointers. T-Wat (I swear there is a pregame video in which he introduces himself as T-Wat and I think it's amazing) also had to play some four on the defensive end late in the game and mostly held his own. He's an easy kid to root for, so it was nice to see him play well. I'm not quite at the point where I believe he can be like a consistent double-digit scorer or anything, but I think I'd like to see both him and Mark Smith get four minutes or so early in a game and then you go with whoever can make a shot early. Because if Mark Smith isn't shooting well (the rule far more than the exception at this point) he's pretty brutal.
Thanks in part to Watson, Mizzou made 13 of 32 threes. Both of those numbers are season-highs. That amounts to 40.6 percent, quite a bit better than the season average coming in of 30.7 percent. That kept Mizzou in a game in which they could get almost nothing around the rim. All game, I said that was unsustainable, Mizzou needed to get more drives, but it (almost) worked out. I still don't think you can count on that type of shooting, and especially from those people (Watson, Mitchell Smith, Drew Buggs) night in and night out, but if it could continue in a game in which Tilmon plays and plays engaged, it would be beneficial to the offense.
Last thing, let's talk about the late-game execution. I haven't read the board at all yet, but I imagine Missouri's last two offensive possessions have drawn some ire. First of all, this team was destined to lose a close game eventually, and it did take some good execution just to get this game to overtime. Also, Cuonzo probably didn't ever envision he would field a lineup that included Torrence Watson and Parker Braun in the final minute of a close league game. All that said, there are a couple things that deserve some criticism — and I don't actually include the possession where Dru drove and kind of lost the ball/passed to Braun and he turned it over, because I'm fine with putting the ball in Dru's hands there. If there's one coaching decision I think you can criticize Martin on today, it was putting Javon Pickett in for Xavier Pinson in a defense-offense substitution. Pickett then immediately got beat on a back-door cut that led to an easy layup. It was probably the biggest basket of the game. I get that Pickett is a good defender, but he only played 8 minutes today (I guess his ankle is still bothering him?) and at that point hadn't been on the floor in about 24 minutes of game time. It's one of those moves where if it works and Pickett gets a big steal or something, Cuonzo looks like a genius, but it didn't so he has to bear some blame. The other problematic play was, no surprise, Pinson's last three. Cuonzo made it pretty clear after the game that a play had been called and, while he said Pinson had the green light to shoot if he was open, that was not the play. I haven't seen the replay, so I'm not sure where the play went wrong, and I certainly believe Cuonzo that he didn't instruct his team "everyone just stand there and watch X jack up a contested fadeaway" but you certainly would have liked to have at least seen a more clean look on that possession.
