In truth, I don’t have that many fresh thoughts about the Border War.
It was a “good” loss for Missouri. I wrote after the game about how the Tigers were slightly better than Kansas for about 34 minutes. But during those other six minutes, the Jayhawks were the far superior squad. You can point to a lot of moments that killed Mizzou’s momentum — the airballs from Noah Carter and Nick Honor, the fumbled alley-oops to Aidan Shaw, the bricked 3-pointer from Trent Pierce. To only lose by nine points against the No. 2 country was encouraging, but that only counts for so much.
Caleb Grill being out for over a month hurts. Sean East II has been incredible, but Missouri wins games when it has multiple guys who can threaten on offense. Grill seemed like someone the Tigers were beginning to count on, not just because of the high level of defense and rebounding he brought to the table, but also because he scored 10 points at Pitt and 13 points against Wichita State, canning 5-11 of his 3s in those two games. On Tiger Talk last night, head coach Dennis Gates joked that he went up to Grill and said “Caleb, you made a shot after your injury. Are you sure you’re hurt?”
Gates also noted on the show that his team needs a third scorer to win a game like that. Even if Grill couldn’t sustain it every night, he was at least an option. Without him, I’m not sure there’s a clear-cut favorite to take over those minutes. Tamar Bates doesn’t shoot as often as you’d expect. Anthony Robinson II has shown promise but it seemed like the moment got him at Kansas and Gates has mostly gone away from playing him, East and Honor together. Curt Lewis has helped spark big runs but doesn’t make much of an impression in the box score. The same goes for Pierce, though Gates did say he liked what he saw from the freshman defensively during Saturday’s game. John Tonje can’t get on the floor for whatever reason.
Until one of them emerges as a consistent contributor, specifically on offense, I think Gates will keep cycling through all of them until he can get Grill back. That’s not a great issue to have heading into two of your most important non-conference games of the season. The team’s defense will keep it competitive in most outings, but having a better idea of what the wing rotation looks like would’ve made life a lot easier.
Mizzou probably needs to go 1-1 against Seton Hall and Illinois to keep its postseason hopes alive. The Pirates are the easier of the two opponents by a decent amount. The Tigers have a lot at stake this weekend.
The SEC earned some trust back after this past week.
In my last column, I wrote about the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad losses that half the conference had and how it could have a detrimental impact on the number of at-large bids the league receives for the NCAA tournament. The SEC moved up to the No. 2 spot in KenPom’s conference ratings and widened the gap a smidge between itself and the Big Ten and Big East. (The Big 12, meanwhile, is running away with the No. 1 spot. The gap between it and the SEC is larger than the gap between the SEC and No. 6 ACC).
Earlier this week, @GabeD laid out his tiers of how each school is stacking up in the conference, and I tend to agree with him. Here’s a rundown of how each team is shaping up, in no particular order, a third of the way into the regular season:
I was so loudly wrong about the Wildcats before the season. I voted them to finish ninth in the conference when I probably should’ve voted them to finish ninth in the country. Now to be clear, there’s been a significant change in how Kentucky is playing this season. According to KenPom, 3-pointers never accounted for more than 25.2% of the team’s points in six of the past seven years, which always ranked outside the top 300 in the nation. This year, however, the Wildcats are shooting the leather off the ball, connecting on 41.3% of their treys. Triples have accounted for 35.3% of their points, which ranks 68th. Kentucky’s only losses have come against Kansas on a neutral court and UNC Wilmington when the team was without starting point guard D.J. Wagner. I didn’t see it coming and I don’t think most people even thought they’d be quite this good. But the Wildcats have conference-winning potential because of their firepower.
Tennessee, 7-3
The Volunteers have played the sixth-toughest schedule in the country so far and have managed to keep a decent record through it. They hit a tough three-game skid at the end of November, falling to Purdue, Kansas and North Carolina away from home, but have picked it back up this month, claiming an impressive win over Illinois this past weekend. Tennessee hit a home run with Northern Colorado transfer Dalton Knecht, who’s averaging 19.2 points per game on close to 50/40/80 shooting. The backcourt of Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi still hasn’t looked the same as it did last year, but I wouldn’t expect that to last for very long — Zeigler will eventually get his legs back underneath him after returning from injury and Vescovi is too experienced to not figure things out.
Texas A&M, 7-3
I had a higher opinion of the Aggies before they lost to Memphis on Sunday. That one will ding them a bit when it comes time to seed the Big Dance. Their other two losses are more explainable, though — FAU and Virginia, both away from home. The team’s schedule has been just as much of a gauntlet as Tennessee’s, however, and Texas A&M has come away with some impressive victories against Ohio State, SMU, Penn State and Iowa State. Wade Taylor IV has regressed a tad offensively with his accuracy from deep taking a dip but has still looked like his same-old dangerous self on defense. If his shot returns to form and Tyrese Radford stays healthy, I still think the Aggies are the team to beat in the conference.
Things in Tuscaloosa are going exactly how I anticipated. Head coach Nate Oats has turned the reins over to Mark Sears, who’s become the SEC’s top scorer. The Crimson Tide have shooters, shooters and more shooters, resulting in the No. 1 offense in the NCAA. The team’s cracked 100 points on three occasions already. However, the big question mark that remains is how good this group can be defensively. Alabama’s three losses have all come when it let Ohio State, Clemson and Purdue score 85 points or more. Its only high-major win came against Oregon, 99-91. The team is tough to keep pace with on offense but has more to prove on the other side of the ball.
Arkansas, 6-4
The Razorbacks have possibly the most impressive win out of all of the SEC schools, taking out Duke at home, 80-75. Transfer guards Khalif Battle and Tramon Mark have clicked and Trevon Brazile looks healthy. But almost the entire rest of the team seems to be in a shooting slump. And Arkansas doesn’t have especially inspiring losses, dropping neutral court games to Memphis, North Carolina and Oklahoma and a home court game to UNC Greensboro. Still, head coach Eric Musselman’s teams aren’t the same in March as they are in December and the victory over the Blue Devils shows the Hogs have real upside.
Auburn, 7-2
OK, sure, I was lower on the Tigers than this before the season. But it wasn’t because I thought they’d be bad. It was more so I just had no clue what this team was going to look like outside of Johni Broome (who unsurprisingly has been a wrecking ball so far this year). My biggest concern was that I wasn’t sure that the backcourt duo of FIU transfer gunner Denver Jones and freshman point guard Aden Holloway would be good enough. I was half right (or half wrong if you’re a glass-half-empty type) — Jones has not been the same bucket-getter at Aubun as he was with the Panthers, averaging just 7.9 points. But Holloway has been one of the league’s better freshmen, posting 12.3 points and 3.1 assists per game, becoming the Robin to Broome’s Batman. Auburn was dealt a “bad, but not Titanic bad” loss on the road by Appalachian State and then bounced back by steamrolling Indiana this past weekend. The Tigers are going to be fine.
Mississippi State, 8-2
The good news: There’s no way Bulldogs repeat as the worst 3-point shooting team this season. The bad news: They still desperately need Tolu Smith to get healthy. West Virginia transfer big man Jimmy Bell Jr. has filled in admirably for Smith, nearly averaging a double-double. But Bell does not have nearly the same post presence as Smith and it may be asking too much of him to be the No. 2 scorer behind freshman guard Josh Hubbard (who’s been electric so far). Two-pointers accounted for 57.1% of the team’s points last year. This year, the number’s plummeted to 47.7%. The losses against Georgia Tech and Southern aren’t great but I expect Smith to buoy the Bulldogs back up when he returns — head coach Chris Jans said that Smith will get his foot scanned on Thursday and they’ll have a better idea of when he’ll be back then.
It was a “good” loss for Missouri. I wrote after the game about how the Tigers were slightly better than Kansas for about 34 minutes. But during those other six minutes, the Jayhawks were the far superior squad. You can point to a lot of moments that killed Mizzou’s momentum — the airballs from Noah Carter and Nick Honor, the fumbled alley-oops to Aidan Shaw, the bricked 3-pointer from Trent Pierce. To only lose by nine points against the No. 2 country was encouraging, but that only counts for so much.
Caleb Grill being out for over a month hurts. Sean East II has been incredible, but Missouri wins games when it has multiple guys who can threaten on offense. Grill seemed like someone the Tigers were beginning to count on, not just because of the high level of defense and rebounding he brought to the table, but also because he scored 10 points at Pitt and 13 points against Wichita State, canning 5-11 of his 3s in those two games. On Tiger Talk last night, head coach Dennis Gates joked that he went up to Grill and said “Caleb, you made a shot after your injury. Are you sure you’re hurt?”
Gates also noted on the show that his team needs a third scorer to win a game like that. Even if Grill couldn’t sustain it every night, he was at least an option. Without him, I’m not sure there’s a clear-cut favorite to take over those minutes. Tamar Bates doesn’t shoot as often as you’d expect. Anthony Robinson II has shown promise but it seemed like the moment got him at Kansas and Gates has mostly gone away from playing him, East and Honor together. Curt Lewis has helped spark big runs but doesn’t make much of an impression in the box score. The same goes for Pierce, though Gates did say he liked what he saw from the freshman defensively during Saturday’s game. John Tonje can’t get on the floor for whatever reason.
Until one of them emerges as a consistent contributor, specifically on offense, I think Gates will keep cycling through all of them until he can get Grill back. That’s not a great issue to have heading into two of your most important non-conference games of the season. The team’s defense will keep it competitive in most outings, but having a better idea of what the wing rotation looks like would’ve made life a lot easier.
Mizzou probably needs to go 1-1 against Seton Hall and Illinois to keep its postseason hopes alive. The Pirates are the easier of the two opponents by a decent amount. The Tigers have a lot at stake this weekend.
The SEC earned some trust back after this past week.
In my last column, I wrote about the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad losses that half the conference had and how it could have a detrimental impact on the number of at-large bids the league receives for the NCAA tournament. The SEC moved up to the No. 2 spot in KenPom’s conference ratings and widened the gap a smidge between itself and the Big Ten and Big East. (The Big 12, meanwhile, is running away with the No. 1 spot. The gap between it and the SEC is larger than the gap between the SEC and No. 6 ACC).
Earlier this week, @GabeD laid out his tiers of how each school is stacking up in the conference, and I tend to agree with him. Here’s a rundown of how each team is shaping up, in no particular order, a third of the way into the regular season:
- Tier 1 (aka teams that make you say “SHEESH” in a good way)
I was so loudly wrong about the Wildcats before the season. I voted them to finish ninth in the conference when I probably should’ve voted them to finish ninth in the country. Now to be clear, there’s been a significant change in how Kentucky is playing this season. According to KenPom, 3-pointers never accounted for more than 25.2% of the team’s points in six of the past seven years, which always ranked outside the top 300 in the nation. This year, however, the Wildcats are shooting the leather off the ball, connecting on 41.3% of their treys. Triples have accounted for 35.3% of their points, which ranks 68th. Kentucky’s only losses have come against Kansas on a neutral court and UNC Wilmington when the team was without starting point guard D.J. Wagner. I didn’t see it coming and I don’t think most people even thought they’d be quite this good. But the Wildcats have conference-winning potential because of their firepower.
Tennessee, 7-3
The Volunteers have played the sixth-toughest schedule in the country so far and have managed to keep a decent record through it. They hit a tough three-game skid at the end of November, falling to Purdue, Kansas and North Carolina away from home, but have picked it back up this month, claiming an impressive win over Illinois this past weekend. Tennessee hit a home run with Northern Colorado transfer Dalton Knecht, who’s averaging 19.2 points per game on close to 50/40/80 shooting. The backcourt of Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi still hasn’t looked the same as it did last year, but I wouldn’t expect that to last for very long — Zeigler will eventually get his legs back underneath him after returning from injury and Vescovi is too experienced to not figure things out.
Texas A&M, 7-3
I had a higher opinion of the Aggies before they lost to Memphis on Sunday. That one will ding them a bit when it comes time to seed the Big Dance. Their other two losses are more explainable, though — FAU and Virginia, both away from home. The team’s schedule has been just as much of a gauntlet as Tennessee’s, however, and Texas A&M has come away with some impressive victories against Ohio State, SMU, Penn State and Iowa State. Wade Taylor IV has regressed a tad offensively with his accuracy from deep taking a dip but has still looked like his same-old dangerous self on defense. If his shot returns to form and Tyrese Radford stays healthy, I still think the Aggies are the team to beat in the conference.
- Tier 2 (aka teams that are about as good as you thought they were)
Things in Tuscaloosa are going exactly how I anticipated. Head coach Nate Oats has turned the reins over to Mark Sears, who’s become the SEC’s top scorer. The Crimson Tide have shooters, shooters and more shooters, resulting in the No. 1 offense in the NCAA. The team’s cracked 100 points on three occasions already. However, the big question mark that remains is how good this group can be defensively. Alabama’s three losses have all come when it let Ohio State, Clemson and Purdue score 85 points or more. Its only high-major win came against Oregon, 99-91. The team is tough to keep pace with on offense but has more to prove on the other side of the ball.
Arkansas, 6-4
The Razorbacks have possibly the most impressive win out of all of the SEC schools, taking out Duke at home, 80-75. Transfer guards Khalif Battle and Tramon Mark have clicked and Trevon Brazile looks healthy. But almost the entire rest of the team seems to be in a shooting slump. And Arkansas doesn’t have especially inspiring losses, dropping neutral court games to Memphis, North Carolina and Oklahoma and a home court game to UNC Greensboro. Still, head coach Eric Musselman’s teams aren’t the same in March as they are in December and the victory over the Blue Devils shows the Hogs have real upside.
Auburn, 7-2
OK, sure, I was lower on the Tigers than this before the season. But it wasn’t because I thought they’d be bad. It was more so I just had no clue what this team was going to look like outside of Johni Broome (who unsurprisingly has been a wrecking ball so far this year). My biggest concern was that I wasn’t sure that the backcourt duo of FIU transfer gunner Denver Jones and freshman point guard Aden Holloway would be good enough. I was half right (or half wrong if you’re a glass-half-empty type) — Jones has not been the same bucket-getter at Aubun as he was with the Panthers, averaging just 7.9 points. But Holloway has been one of the league’s better freshmen, posting 12.3 points and 3.1 assists per game, becoming the Robin to Broome’s Batman. Auburn was dealt a “bad, but not Titanic bad” loss on the road by Appalachian State and then bounced back by steamrolling Indiana this past weekend. The Tigers are going to be fine.
Mississippi State, 8-2
The good news: There’s no way Bulldogs repeat as the worst 3-point shooting team this season. The bad news: They still desperately need Tolu Smith to get healthy. West Virginia transfer big man Jimmy Bell Jr. has filled in admirably for Smith, nearly averaging a double-double. But Bell does not have nearly the same post presence as Smith and it may be asking too much of him to be the No. 2 scorer behind freshman guard Josh Hubbard (who’s been electric so far). Two-pointers accounted for 57.1% of the team’s points last year. This year, the number’s plummeted to 47.7%. The losses against Georgia Tech and Southern aren’t great but I expect Smith to buoy the Bulldogs back up when he returns — head coach Chris Jans said that Smith will get his foot scanned on Thursday and they’ll have a better idea of when he’ll be back then.
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