1. I have spent a fair amount of time this season thinking about whether the blowout losses or the close losses have been worse. Maybe its recency bias, but I'm leaning toward the close ones. The Tigers have now played four games that have been decided by three points or less this season, all at home. They have lost all four. You could seriously argue that if the outcome of three plays had been different, this team would be one game under .500 (and potentially with a win over the then-No. 1 team in the country) and there wouldn't be any realistic talk of firing Cuonzo Martin. But, of course, you don't get to change those plays, and that's pretty much how every bad team ends up feeling about its season.
2. I'm sure the decision by Martin not to use his final timeout is getting the most attention from fans. I understand that it's an easy thing to second-guess. But I actually thought it was the right call. Martin said after the game that the plan was to get the ball across half court and call a timeout if Shakeel Moore made his free throw and Mizzou needed a three. But since he missed, he wanted his team to try to beat Mississippi State down the court and get a higher-percentage look. I think that's the right move in theory. Mizzou had been at its best in transition all night and you don't want to give Ben Howland a chance to swap personnel. The problem was in the execution. Martin said Javon Pickett probably should have tried to drive to the basket. I certainly think someone should have. You don't want this team taking threes in any sort of a big spot. And I absolutely acknowledge that ultimately execution comes back on the coach, as well. But I didn't have an issue with the strategy there.
3. What I did have an issue with was Missouri's third-to-last possession. The Tigers led by two points with less than two minutes to play. And they never even tried to score. They basically dribbled out the shot clock (a common sight this season) and Kobe Brown had to heave up a desperation three at the end of the shot clock. Then they got bailed out by Pickett, who tracked down the offensive board. ... Then they did the exact same thing. You would have thought the team would have learned its lesson by now about trying to simply waste time instead of continuing to be aggressive. And maybe they wanted to attack but just couldn't without a true point guard to initiate it. But whatever the reason, I thought that was the most frustrating possession.
4. I am contractually obligated to talk about Martin's job security in this space. I have to think losing both games this weekend is a blow to his chances of returning. Mississippi State entered this home and home series having lost six in a row and pretty far outside the bubble. In short: it's a very beatable team. And there's not a ton of those left on the schedule. Mizzou not only added two losses to its record this weekend but the Tigers have to be absolutely gassed headed into a brutal week. This team only has eight players and several of them play 30 minutes seemingly every night and they've had to do that four times in the last eight days. Now you have to turn around and play a much more talented and likely pissed off Tennessee team at home on two days' rest and then travel to LSU? Those look like two losses to me. At this point, Martin is simply running out of wins.
5. My ultimate takeaway is I'm tired of this season. I'm tired of watching ugly, predictable basketball and trying to make every game mean something when few of them really have for a while now. I can only imagine those of you who are a lot more emotionally invested feel the same way. I do think that lack of energy has to enter into the calculus for Desiree Reed-Francois and the other decision makers as they take stock of the program's future.
2. I'm sure the decision by Martin not to use his final timeout is getting the most attention from fans. I understand that it's an easy thing to second-guess. But I actually thought it was the right call. Martin said after the game that the plan was to get the ball across half court and call a timeout if Shakeel Moore made his free throw and Mizzou needed a three. But since he missed, he wanted his team to try to beat Mississippi State down the court and get a higher-percentage look. I think that's the right move in theory. Mizzou had been at its best in transition all night and you don't want to give Ben Howland a chance to swap personnel. The problem was in the execution. Martin said Javon Pickett probably should have tried to drive to the basket. I certainly think someone should have. You don't want this team taking threes in any sort of a big spot. And I absolutely acknowledge that ultimately execution comes back on the coach, as well. But I didn't have an issue with the strategy there.
3. What I did have an issue with was Missouri's third-to-last possession. The Tigers led by two points with less than two minutes to play. And they never even tried to score. They basically dribbled out the shot clock (a common sight this season) and Kobe Brown had to heave up a desperation three at the end of the shot clock. Then they got bailed out by Pickett, who tracked down the offensive board. ... Then they did the exact same thing. You would have thought the team would have learned its lesson by now about trying to simply waste time instead of continuing to be aggressive. And maybe they wanted to attack but just couldn't without a true point guard to initiate it. But whatever the reason, I thought that was the most frustrating possession.
4. I am contractually obligated to talk about Martin's job security in this space. I have to think losing both games this weekend is a blow to his chances of returning. Mississippi State entered this home and home series having lost six in a row and pretty far outside the bubble. In short: it's a very beatable team. And there's not a ton of those left on the schedule. Mizzou not only added two losses to its record this weekend but the Tigers have to be absolutely gassed headed into a brutal week. This team only has eight players and several of them play 30 minutes seemingly every night and they've had to do that four times in the last eight days. Now you have to turn around and play a much more talented and likely pissed off Tennessee team at home on two days' rest and then travel to LSU? Those look like two losses to me. At this point, Martin is simply running out of wins.
5. My ultimate takeaway is I'm tired of this season. I'm tired of watching ugly, predictable basketball and trying to make every game mean something when few of them really have for a while now. I can only imagine those of you who are a lot more emotionally invested feel the same way. I do think that lack of energy has to enter into the calculus for Desiree Reed-Francois and the other decision makers as they take stock of the program's future.
