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BASKETBALL Halftime Thoughts: Georgia 37, Missouri 33

mitchell4d

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That half started out about as poorly as possible. Missouri could not stay in front of Georgia’s guards, with the Bulldogs making nine of their first 14 shots. On the other end, Georgia was really aggressive in hedging on Missouri’s screens and denying driving lanes and Mizzou didn’t put forth much effort to get around it, instead jacking up threes just about every trip. Seven of the Tigers’ first eight shots were from behind the arc. Mizzou finished the half 3-14 from three.

Eventually, though, Mizzou settled in and it got a bit better, thanks mostly to Kobe Brown and Parker Braun. Georgia’s defensive game plan was clearly to overextend its defense on the perimeter and dare someone in a Mizzou uniform to score down low with no Jeremiah Tilmon in the game. Brown and Braun have done that. Brown has been aggressive on both ends. He leads all scorers with 13 points on 5-8 shooting. Braun has four points and, more impressive to me, three assists. He’s looked very poised every time he’s gotten the ball down low, waiting for Brown or someone else to come open if he doesn’t have an opportunity to score right away. Once Mizzou stopped shooting so many threes, the offense got quite a bit better. Mizzou made seven of its final 12 field goals in the half; only three of those came from behind the arc.

The defense has not been great, which continues a concerning trend. Georgia’s game plan was simple but effective: Spread the floor with four or five guys on the perimeter and bet on your guy driving right past Mizzou’s defender. Especially early on, it worked. Georgia scored 22 points in the paint (although so did Missouri) and shot 11-20 on two-pointers. Only five of its 13 made field goals came on assists, which shows the problem was more one-on-one defense, in my opinion. I also thought the Bulldogs missed a few opportunities with missed shots around the rim and unforced turnovers. It’s hard to really single players out on the defensive end, but I definitely noticed Javon Pickett and Xavier Pinson get blown by multiple times. Pinson, in particular, did not have a good first half. He only had one turnover, but I think all but one of his six field goal attempts came outside the paint, including four three-pointers. He shot 2-6. Cuonzo Martin has had him on a tight leash, which I think can at times prevent a player like Pinson from playing to his strengths, but so far tonight, Missouri has been far better with Drew Buggs in the game. Pinson is minus-7 in 10 minutes, Buggs is plus-13 in nine. Expect to see more Buggs down the stretch.

Certainly this is still anybody’s game, but I get the feeling that if Missouri can just avoid the temptation to shoot threes every time down the floor, it should win this game. The first few minutes of the second half will be important, though — and the Tigers have struggled in that time of late. If Mizzou can come out and assert itself, I would not be surprised to see a Georgia team that is playing for nothing at this point pack it in. If you let the Bulldogs hang around, however, they will become much more difficult to put away.
 
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