Honestly, I can't believe Missouri is only down one point. The Tigers were shooting 2 of 18 and were down 20-6 early and hadn't gotten a single point from the Smiths and I thought this was going to get out of hand like the Mississippi State game. So major credit to them for not letting that happen.
Let's start with the bad, because that's how the first half unfolded. The halfcourt offense has been dreadful. Mizzou is shooting 21.4 percent for the half. A large part of that due to West Virginia — they're a long team and they lead the nation in field goal percentage defense for a reason — but also Mizzou has missed its share of layups and open threes. At this point, though, you kind of expect that. This is just not a very good shooting team, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.
So, the answer is to try to simultaneously slow the game down and make it ugly and also be opportunistic when transition opportunities present themselves. And Mizzou did that during its run. They've scored seven points off eight West Virginia turnovers. They've also done a decent job of defending the interior and making West Virginia try to shoot over them, although I'm sure Cuonzo would like to see a better job on the offensive glass. If Mizzou is going to win this game, it's going to need to continue to pack in the defense and hope West Virginia can't knock anything down from outside and score points in transition and at the free throw line. I know there are no moral victories, but you have to be pleasantly surprise we're in a position to talk about Mizzou winning at this point.
Let's start with the bad, because that's how the first half unfolded. The halfcourt offense has been dreadful. Mizzou is shooting 21.4 percent for the half. A large part of that due to West Virginia — they're a long team and they lead the nation in field goal percentage defense for a reason — but also Mizzou has missed its share of layups and open threes. At this point, though, you kind of expect that. This is just not a very good shooting team, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.
So, the answer is to try to simultaneously slow the game down and make it ugly and also be opportunistic when transition opportunities present themselves. And Mizzou did that during its run. They've scored seven points off eight West Virginia turnovers. They've also done a decent job of defending the interior and making West Virginia try to shoot over them, although I'm sure Cuonzo would like to see a better job on the offensive glass. If Mizzou is going to win this game, it's going to need to continue to pack in the defense and hope West Virginia can't knock anything down from outside and score points in transition and at the free throw line. I know there are no moral victories, but you have to be pleasantly surprise we're in a position to talk about Mizzou winning at this point.
