Part of what has always made Jeremiah Tilmon a maddening player is that when he’s on, he can absolutely take over a game. It’s been a while since we’ve seen that version of him. We got it in the first half. Tilmon got going with an alley-oop on the game’s first possession and from that point looked active and confident on both ends. He had already eclipsed his season high of 12 points less than 12 minutes into the game. He finished the half with 14 points and eight rebounds. Connor Vanover isn’t strong enough to guard him, and with Justin Smith out, Arkansas doesn't have anyone with the size. Mizzou needs to keep getting him the ball absolutely every chance it gets. I’m sure Arkansas will start to double him, as they showed at the end of that half, so the key will be other people moving and cutting to give him someone to pass to.
For the most part, I like what I’ve seen from Missouri on the offensive end. The Tigers clearly anticipated they’d have a mismatch with Tilmon and tried to get him going early. It worked. They’ve been a lot less stagnant both moving the ball and moving without the ball. They haven’t settled for too many threes, with eight of their 27 shots coming from inside the arc. The problem has been finishing off possessions. I think the vast majority of the threes have been decent looks for competent shooters, but Mizzou still can’t knock them down. They’re just 1-8 from deep. Aside from the perimeter shooting, the big issue has been turnovers. Missouri has a dozen of them after having 21 against Tennessee. Most of those have come just from sloppy ball-handling or losing the grasp on the ball. RJ Layton, Missouri’s sports information director, tweeted that there was some concern with the inflation level of the game ball at first, but that got switched out at the first media timeout and that hasn’t seemed to make a big difference in the turnover numbers.
The free throw shooting has been poor, as well — for both teams, but especially Mizzou. The Tigers are 8-15 from the line. Make your free throws and this could be bordering on a blowout. You can’t miss out on easy scoring opportunities like that when you’re playing a team that can put points on the board in a hurry like Arkansas.
The slow offensive end to the first half didn’t kill Mizzou, though, because Arkansas struggled to put the ball through the hoop as well. Credit the Mizzou defense. They’ve done a really good job of forcing Arkansas into a lot of tough, off-balanced shots. The Razorbacks average 90 points a game, so holding them to 30 in the first half is no small feat. They’re shooting just 24 percent from the field. You know Arkansas is going to keep shooting, though, and they’ll almost certainly have a scoring spurt or two in the second half, so it will be up to Mizzou to keep pace. And to stop fouling. The Tigers had 13 fouls in the first half. Kobe Brown has three, each of the three Smiths has two. That will be something to monitor.
Ultimately, if I had told you Mizzou would score just three points in the final six minutes of the half and get no field goal makes from Mark and Dru Smith and turn it over 12 times in the first 20 minutes against Arkansas, you would probably think the score would look a lot like it did on Wednesday. The lead could be bigger, too, if Mizzou did a better job of taking care of the basketball and made its free throws, but I think you have to feel pretty good about the situation right now.
For the most part, I like what I’ve seen from Missouri on the offensive end. The Tigers clearly anticipated they’d have a mismatch with Tilmon and tried to get him going early. It worked. They’ve been a lot less stagnant both moving the ball and moving without the ball. They haven’t settled for too many threes, with eight of their 27 shots coming from inside the arc. The problem has been finishing off possessions. I think the vast majority of the threes have been decent looks for competent shooters, but Mizzou still can’t knock them down. They’re just 1-8 from deep. Aside from the perimeter shooting, the big issue has been turnovers. Missouri has a dozen of them after having 21 against Tennessee. Most of those have come just from sloppy ball-handling or losing the grasp on the ball. RJ Layton, Missouri’s sports information director, tweeted that there was some concern with the inflation level of the game ball at first, but that got switched out at the first media timeout and that hasn’t seemed to make a big difference in the turnover numbers.
The free throw shooting has been poor, as well — for both teams, but especially Mizzou. The Tigers are 8-15 from the line. Make your free throws and this could be bordering on a blowout. You can’t miss out on easy scoring opportunities like that when you’re playing a team that can put points on the board in a hurry like Arkansas.
The slow offensive end to the first half didn’t kill Mizzou, though, because Arkansas struggled to put the ball through the hoop as well. Credit the Mizzou defense. They’ve done a really good job of forcing Arkansas into a lot of tough, off-balanced shots. The Razorbacks average 90 points a game, so holding them to 30 in the first half is no small feat. They’re shooting just 24 percent from the field. You know Arkansas is going to keep shooting, though, and they’ll almost certainly have a scoring spurt or two in the second half, so it will be up to Mizzou to keep pace. And to stop fouling. The Tigers had 13 fouls in the first half. Kobe Brown has three, each of the three Smiths has two. That will be something to monitor.
Ultimately, if I had told you Mizzou would score just three points in the final six minutes of the half and get no field goal makes from Mark and Dru Smith and turn it over 12 times in the first 20 minutes against Arkansas, you would probably think the score would look a lot like it did on Wednesday. The lead could be bigger, too, if Mizzou did a better job of taking care of the basketball and made its free throws, but I think you have to feel pretty good about the situation right now.
