*I fully understand why many of you didn't want this game played and weren't going to care about this game. Personally, I wanted it played. But as I wrote in my column, just having it back doesn't mean anything if Missouri's not going to make it worthwhile. I knew Mizzou was going to get blown out today and it did. Sure, that's a little disappointing obviously, but it's not surprising. To me, it's about what are you going to do to make sure it's not like this for the next five years?
*Does that include making a change at head coach? It absolutely might. Like I've said after the last six games or so, I'm not going to have that discussion after every single game and Missouri isn't going to make a change before the end of the season, but you're nuts if you don't think it's going to be on the table. Because where's the hope for this team? Missouri had 2.5 players who looked like they were capable of playing in this game. And the issue isn't that Missouri is 37 points worse than Kansas. I mean, it is, but it's just as big an issue and maybe a bigger one that it's 14 points worse than UMKC and 21 worse than Liberty and 23 worse than Florida State. Where are the signs it's going to get better? Hell, the only guy who looked like he could put the ball in the basket for the first 20 minutes isn't coming back next year.
*As far as this game specifically, I thought Missouri actually played decently offensively for the first 15 minutes or so. They simply didn't have a single guy who could stop his counterpart defensively. Every Kansas player could get around his man. So Missouri is helping off and leaving wide open shooters. When Kansas tossed the ball inside, Missouri's only real defense was to hack away or give up an easy basket. Basketball isn't all that complex. If the other team has the better player at every position on the floor, that team is almost always going to win and is frequently going to win by 37 points. The issue in this game is the same as it's been in every other game. Missouri doesn't have enough good players. Kansas just has more good players than the rest of the teams the Tigers have played so it was exposed even more.
*Here's what I'd do the rest of the year: I'd play Javon Pickett, Kobe Brown, DaJuan Gordon and the five freshmen. Those are my top eight guys. If someone's in foul trouble or tired, toss somebody else out there. The only real chance to get this thing turned around--and I'm not talking turned around to the point of being good, I'm just talking turned around to the point you can show competence and have a leg to stand on when you argue to keep your job at the end of the year--is to put the young guys out there and hope they develop and win some games. Because we're a third of the way through the season and your best win with the guys that have been playing is an overtime game against SMU. The guys that have been playing aren't good enough. I'm not saying the other guys are either, but at least you could argue that they're freshmen and should improve.
*I want to finish with this: I know you guys want to hear something from Cuonzo Martin that will offer some sort of explanation or make you feel better. Hell, I'd like to hear it to. But he's not ever going to say it. I considered asking Cuonzo if today was representative of the gap between these programs and what has to happen to get this thing going in the right direction. But he would have talked about how they have to guard better and execute better and make more shots. He's just not going to give you answers that are going to satisfy you. His default mode is to start talking about basketball. Sure it's somewhat about basketball, but the bigger problem is that I don't think this roster has players that are capable of doing the things that need to be done. This probably sounds like an excuse. I don't mean it as one. There's going to be a time in the next few weeks where he's going to get more and more uncomfortable questions. But in this job, you've got to read the room sometimes too. And reading this room, Cuonzo just wasn't going to say anything insightful so I kept the bullet in the chamber for another day.
Here's my column from the game and Mitchell has a full notebook coming. We've got football interviews tomorrow and are gearing up for signing day on Wednesday. Headed back to CoMo shortly.
*Does that include making a change at head coach? It absolutely might. Like I've said after the last six games or so, I'm not going to have that discussion after every single game and Missouri isn't going to make a change before the end of the season, but you're nuts if you don't think it's going to be on the table. Because where's the hope for this team? Missouri had 2.5 players who looked like they were capable of playing in this game. And the issue isn't that Missouri is 37 points worse than Kansas. I mean, it is, but it's just as big an issue and maybe a bigger one that it's 14 points worse than UMKC and 21 worse than Liberty and 23 worse than Florida State. Where are the signs it's going to get better? Hell, the only guy who looked like he could put the ball in the basket for the first 20 minutes isn't coming back next year.
*As far as this game specifically, I thought Missouri actually played decently offensively for the first 15 minutes or so. They simply didn't have a single guy who could stop his counterpart defensively. Every Kansas player could get around his man. So Missouri is helping off and leaving wide open shooters. When Kansas tossed the ball inside, Missouri's only real defense was to hack away or give up an easy basket. Basketball isn't all that complex. If the other team has the better player at every position on the floor, that team is almost always going to win and is frequently going to win by 37 points. The issue in this game is the same as it's been in every other game. Missouri doesn't have enough good players. Kansas just has more good players than the rest of the teams the Tigers have played so it was exposed even more.
*Here's what I'd do the rest of the year: I'd play Javon Pickett, Kobe Brown, DaJuan Gordon and the five freshmen. Those are my top eight guys. If someone's in foul trouble or tired, toss somebody else out there. The only real chance to get this thing turned around--and I'm not talking turned around to the point of being good, I'm just talking turned around to the point you can show competence and have a leg to stand on when you argue to keep your job at the end of the year--is to put the young guys out there and hope they develop and win some games. Because we're a third of the way through the season and your best win with the guys that have been playing is an overtime game against SMU. The guys that have been playing aren't good enough. I'm not saying the other guys are either, but at least you could argue that they're freshmen and should improve.
*I want to finish with this: I know you guys want to hear something from Cuonzo Martin that will offer some sort of explanation or make you feel better. Hell, I'd like to hear it to. But he's not ever going to say it. I considered asking Cuonzo if today was representative of the gap between these programs and what has to happen to get this thing going in the right direction. But he would have talked about how they have to guard better and execute better and make more shots. He's just not going to give you answers that are going to satisfy you. His default mode is to start talking about basketball. Sure it's somewhat about basketball, but the bigger problem is that I don't think this roster has players that are capable of doing the things that need to be done. This probably sounds like an excuse. I don't mean it as one. There's going to be a time in the next few weeks where he's going to get more and more uncomfortable questions. But in this job, you've got to read the room sometimes too. And reading this room, Cuonzo just wasn't going to say anything insightful so I kept the bullet in the chamber for another day.
Here's my column from the game and Mitchell has a full notebook coming. We've got football interviews tomorrow and are gearing up for signing day on Wednesday. Headed back to CoMo shortly.
