Working on fighting off a hangover, so apologies in advance for the delay and any misspellings. Let's get on with it.
1. For starters, what a week. Two wins over power conference teams by an average of 15.5 points. As impressive as the Xavier win was, this one surely felt better. Wins over Illinois aren't all that common in basketball, wins by 16 points are even less so. Mizzou's last win vs. the Illini by more was in 1994 by 18. This is traditionally a very hotly contested game. For context, Mizzou's 5 game losing streak came by a combined total of 24 points. And three of those were Kim teams. A very nice early christmas gift. For those living on the east side, or worse yet, in Illinois, this is even sweeter. Illinois twitter is not a fiction. It's similar in reality.
2. On to the game, MVP goes to Jordan Geist. 20 points, 6 boards, 7 assists and only 2 turnovers against a pressure defense. He's caught some shit over his career, some of it deserved. But he's been phenomenal this year. Even more so when you consider his lack of full health. You could make a pretty strong argument that he rescued our season early on with the clutch shot against UCF. We've been a different team since that game. And I never thought I'd be typing this after watching his first season at Mizzou.
3. Second place MVP's go to Tilmon and Pickett. Gotta be great for those kids to have success in a big win over Illinois. Tilmon was great, 16 and 12 and only 3 fouls. Pickett was going for a Christian Laettner game, 7-7, before he blew an uncontested layup, easily the least difficult shot of his night.
4. Embrace the slog. Mizzou is a better team when they get in a half court battle, and don't try and get up and down the floor. Especially when that's what the opposition excels at. It was like clockwork last night. When Illinois was pushing tempo and Mizzou tried to match, they got sloppy and the score differential worked its way into the negative. When Mizzou slowed it down, they dominated. There were 71 possessions in last nights game. Mizzou averages 66 per game, Illinois a shy under 74. So it was a little too much pace for my taste, but not unmanageable. Mizzou did well to control it for long enough to really put the hammer down.
5. Mizzou is still having turnover issues on offense. 16 last night are too many. But considering Illinois excels at turning their opposition over, and 6 game in the first 6 minutes of the game, 10 in the last 34 is a decent result. And better yet, Mizzou is handling pressure defense better. So many of our turnovers come from illegal screens and post entry/moves. I think we're better equipped to handle pressure than we were a year ago (that's not a great accomplishment). On the plus side, Mizzou is much better at forcing opponent turnovers this year. An increase of nearly 4% in opponent turnover rate. That represents a jump of roughly 200 spots in the rankings. And that was on display last night when Illinois acquiesced with 15 of their own. Illinois wasn't beating Mizzou with a +1 turnover differential.
6. I'd like to see Mizzou get to the line more. Be more aggressive at attacking the rim. Illinois is one of the worst teams in the nation at putting their opponent on the line, and Mizzou didn't take advantage, only shooting 11.
7. Mizzou's outside shooting was exceptional. 11-21 (52%) is tremendous. They had at least 3-4 open looks rattle out after being halfway down. I never expected this team to be shooting as well as they have from three point range. As a team they're shooting 39.8%, good for 22nd in the country. Every scholarship player that has attempted a 3 for us this year is shooting 37% or better. That includes 7 players. That makes you a dangerous team.
8. Tigers are up to 70th in Pomeroy's ratings at 8-3. A year ago, we were 9-3 (counting the win over Emporia) and ranked 50th. That team was 1-2 at this point in the season against top 100 opponents (Pomeroy). This year's team is 3-3 (would be 4-3 had we not killed Illinois so much). Both teams lost their best player within the first 90 seconds of the season.
9. @sam.snelling wrote a really nice piece today on the culture of the program. To piggyback off his commentary, this team is developing an identity as a tough group. This is no surprise with Cuonzo as coach. But it's more exciting when you consider how many of the players are underclassmen. Of the 353 D-I teams, Mizzou ranks 277th in "Experience," a measure for players' cumulative class and minutes played (1st is most "experienced"). They rank 10th in the SEC, with only LSU, UK, Arkansas and Vanderbilt below them. And most of those teams have heralded recruiting classes...i.e. building on short term elite talent. Mizzou has a slew of 3-4 year players in their freshmen group. Seeing teams not crack under pressure with a group that inexperienced...that's really promising.
10. What's up next. Unfortunately, another week long break. Two games between the 7th and 29th isn't enough for me. But the players get a nice break before returning for what hopefully proves to be a tune-up for SEC play against Morehead State. They're not terrible, but they have 4 wins, two vs a DII, one vs. IUPUI and one vs. UMKC. Although we know how much we should value beating the Roos, but I digress. After that, things step up quickly. A home date vs. Tennessee will open league play with a really tough test. Looking forward to it.
1. For starters, what a week. Two wins over power conference teams by an average of 15.5 points. As impressive as the Xavier win was, this one surely felt better. Wins over Illinois aren't all that common in basketball, wins by 16 points are even less so. Mizzou's last win vs. the Illini by more was in 1994 by 18. This is traditionally a very hotly contested game. For context, Mizzou's 5 game losing streak came by a combined total of 24 points. And three of those were Kim teams. A very nice early christmas gift. For those living on the east side, or worse yet, in Illinois, this is even sweeter. Illinois twitter is not a fiction. It's similar in reality.
2. On to the game, MVP goes to Jordan Geist. 20 points, 6 boards, 7 assists and only 2 turnovers against a pressure defense. He's caught some shit over his career, some of it deserved. But he's been phenomenal this year. Even more so when you consider his lack of full health. You could make a pretty strong argument that he rescued our season early on with the clutch shot against UCF. We've been a different team since that game. And I never thought I'd be typing this after watching his first season at Mizzou.
3. Second place MVP's go to Tilmon and Pickett. Gotta be great for those kids to have success in a big win over Illinois. Tilmon was great, 16 and 12 and only 3 fouls. Pickett was going for a Christian Laettner game, 7-7, before he blew an uncontested layup, easily the least difficult shot of his night.
4. Embrace the slog. Mizzou is a better team when they get in a half court battle, and don't try and get up and down the floor. Especially when that's what the opposition excels at. It was like clockwork last night. When Illinois was pushing tempo and Mizzou tried to match, they got sloppy and the score differential worked its way into the negative. When Mizzou slowed it down, they dominated. There were 71 possessions in last nights game. Mizzou averages 66 per game, Illinois a shy under 74. So it was a little too much pace for my taste, but not unmanageable. Mizzou did well to control it for long enough to really put the hammer down.
5. Mizzou is still having turnover issues on offense. 16 last night are too many. But considering Illinois excels at turning their opposition over, and 6 game in the first 6 minutes of the game, 10 in the last 34 is a decent result. And better yet, Mizzou is handling pressure defense better. So many of our turnovers come from illegal screens and post entry/moves. I think we're better equipped to handle pressure than we were a year ago (that's not a great accomplishment). On the plus side, Mizzou is much better at forcing opponent turnovers this year. An increase of nearly 4% in opponent turnover rate. That represents a jump of roughly 200 spots in the rankings. And that was on display last night when Illinois acquiesced with 15 of their own. Illinois wasn't beating Mizzou with a +1 turnover differential.
6. I'd like to see Mizzou get to the line more. Be more aggressive at attacking the rim. Illinois is one of the worst teams in the nation at putting their opponent on the line, and Mizzou didn't take advantage, only shooting 11.
7. Mizzou's outside shooting was exceptional. 11-21 (52%) is tremendous. They had at least 3-4 open looks rattle out after being halfway down. I never expected this team to be shooting as well as they have from three point range. As a team they're shooting 39.8%, good for 22nd in the country. Every scholarship player that has attempted a 3 for us this year is shooting 37% or better. That includes 7 players. That makes you a dangerous team.
8. Tigers are up to 70th in Pomeroy's ratings at 8-3. A year ago, we were 9-3 (counting the win over Emporia) and ranked 50th. That team was 1-2 at this point in the season against top 100 opponents (Pomeroy). This year's team is 3-3 (would be 4-3 had we not killed Illinois so much). Both teams lost their best player within the first 90 seconds of the season.
9. @sam.snelling wrote a really nice piece today on the culture of the program. To piggyback off his commentary, this team is developing an identity as a tough group. This is no surprise with Cuonzo as coach. But it's more exciting when you consider how many of the players are underclassmen. Of the 353 D-I teams, Mizzou ranks 277th in "Experience," a measure for players' cumulative class and minutes played (1st is most "experienced"). They rank 10th in the SEC, with only LSU, UK, Arkansas and Vanderbilt below them. And most of those teams have heralded recruiting classes...i.e. building on short term elite talent. Mizzou has a slew of 3-4 year players in their freshmen group. Seeing teams not crack under pressure with a group that inexperienced...that's really promising.
10. What's up next. Unfortunately, another week long break. Two games between the 7th and 29th isn't enough for me. But the players get a nice break before returning for what hopefully proves to be a tune-up for SEC play against Morehead State. They're not terrible, but they have 4 wins, two vs a DII, one vs. IUPUI and one vs. UMKC. Although we know how much we should value beating the Roos, but I digress. After that, things step up quickly. A home date vs. Tennessee will open league play with a really tough test. Looking forward to it.
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