Not much need for a breakdown in this one.
We played poorly, lost to a bad team, did it at home, and all when we could least afford it.
How does that happen? Well...
Give up 84 points in regulation, don't score a field goal in OT and generally don't play at the level needed to win. Consider:
--Shoot 4-10 from the line with the game on the line, under a minute in regulation and in OT.
--Turn the ball over 21 times. TWENTY ONE. 14 of which were steals, which resulted in at least 18 points off of.
--Score 3 points in over time.
--Let a 6 point lead with 2 minutes remaining slip away.
--Shoot twice as many FT's as your opponent (31/16) and only score 5 more points. Invisible turnovers.
The way I see it, Mizzou played like absolute garbage for 25 minutes. They realized...holy shit, we better start playing, these guys aren't rolling over. They take a 6 point lead with 2 to go, and then..."oh, we got this now." Nope. That's not how you do it. At all.
And make no mistake. This one is going to leave a mark. In isolation, it's not a game that results in Mizzou no longer making the NCAA tournament. There's a strong body of work and there's plenty of opportunities left.
But what it does mean is that Mizzou has now dropped TWO in a row against teams likely not headed for the tournament (Ole Miss certainly, most likely LSU), and they lost both by not executing what got them here. Stingy defense, controlling the pace and making free throws when they matter.
Now tasked with a big challenge in Knoxville, followed by a tough road tilt in Nashville and a game Arkansas squad at home...Mizzou still needs two. And maybe one in the tournament.
It's simply a matter of what team shows up. We've been through this before and they responded. We'll see what happens in crunch time. This was a big stumble out of the gate.
