First, this game is a lesson why it’s a terrible idea to tweet or post in game threads. Don’t get me wrong, we are glad you all do so. But it is often good to simply keep your thoughts to yourself or contained to text messages with your friends who will not share them with the general public on the Internet. Because sometimes you turn out to be wrong.
I’m not going to pretend everything is perfect and there are no problems just because Missouri won. But every coach in the history of organized sports has uttered this sentence at one point or another: “It’s great to fix problems after a win.” That’s what Cuonzo Martin gets to do over the next few days. It’s a lot better than the alternative (Jamie Dixon probably isn’t going to sleep tonight trying to figure out how his guys let that one get away).
Let’s start with the good stuff:
*Jeremiah Tilmon is simply a force. I think he has a legitimate chance to be the SEC player of the year. Tilmon is now averaging 13.9 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game. He has six double doubles in his last nine. In his last six, he is averaging 19.6 and nine rebounds. More than that, he has played at least 28 minutes in nine straight games, at least 30 in five straight and 35 in each of the last two. The best ability is availability and he has been available for four weeks now. So he’s shooting 50% at the line. It’s not great, but if he’s going to the line 15 times a game, you can deal with it.
I mentioned this on the postgame show, but I think the best part for Missouri is this: If you polled every guy in the locker room, they’d tell you Tilmon is the one they’d most want to have success. He’s overcome so much. He’s put so much into this. He’s a great teammate and a really good guy who’s grown up a ton. It’s good for your go-to guy to also be a very popular guy with a great attitude because there’s no chance of there being any jealousy or team chemistry being disrupted.
*Xavier Pinson is not a consistently good three-point shooter. But man he was good today. His eight threes tied a Mizzou Arena record and are tied for the third most in school history in a single game. They accounted for 24 of his career-high 36 points. Obviously none were bigger than the three he hit to tie the game with 3.4 seconds left. Once that shot went in, it was virtually inconceivable Missouri would lose this game.
*There aren't many instances of a Missouri team having two guys as good as Tilmon and Pinson were on the same day.
But the game that came to mind for me was the NCAA Tournament against Marquette. Rickey Paulding scored 36 (and hit a million threes) and Arthur Johnson had 28 and 18 and it was death inside or death outside for Marquette all day long. Like it was on this day, Missouri couldn't get a stop and went to overtime. Unlike it was on this day, Missouri lost that game. But that was the last time I remember seeing a post player and a guard being so deadly on the same day in the black and gold.
*The other four players who played more than 11 minutes on Saturday all contributed big plays. Cuonzo Martin called Kobe Brown his MVP. Mizzou doesn’t win without Pinson or Tilmon, but it doesn’t win without Brown either. He had 13 rebounds, including a couple of monstrous ones on the offensive end late and a big steal in OT. Only seven points, but game-winning plays. Dru Smith was on the bench much of the first half and didn’t score as much as he often does, but he had a huge layup in overtime and hit the free throw that iced it and pitched in. Mark Smith didn’t do a ton, but he hit one of the biggest shots of the game to cut a six point deficit to three with less than two minutes left and played some good defense. Javon Pickett scored 11 points and helped Missouri survive when the Smiths were giving them nothing in the first half. Take away the contributions of any one of those six guys and Missouri loses today.
Okay, we’ve got to leave a little spot for the bad here:
*You understood Auburn scoring 88 points. They were averaging 81 in league play and have one of the best guards in America and like to run. But TCU? In the last three games, the Frogs have scored 46, 49 and 51. They had 53 before the first media timeout of the second half. They were averaging 66. That’s not a team that should come close to 90 in regulation against a Cuonzo Martin defense.
The Horned Frogs hit some tough shots and shot much better than they usually do. But that game doesn't happen without some help from a porous defense. The main problem to me seemed to be the guards getting torched, which put the bigs out of position and TCU was getting a lot of offensive rebounds (21 second chance points on 10 offensive boards, so basically they scored a basket every time they got an offensive rebound).
Missouri hadn't given up 80 in 19 games. It's now done so twice. The good news is that the Tigers still won one of those (actually the Tigers won both, but the Tigers you like won one). The better news is this is Cuonzo Martin and I hardly think this is going to become a trend.
Other thoughts:
*Things like officiating tend to even out. On Tuesday, Missouri shot 17 fewer free throws than the opposition and Mizzou fans thought they had a game stolen from them by the stripes. Today, Missouri shot 18 more free throws than the opposition and there were at least a couple that I thought definitely could have been called on the home team that weren't and I promise you TCU fans think they had a game stolen from them by the stripes. It happens to everybody.
*This was a game Missouri couldn't afford to lose. According to KenPom, the only game that's an easier projected win than this one the rest of the way is the home game against Texas A&M. The Frogs aren't good. You'd still make the tournament with a loss probably, but it would hurt the resume for sure. It's a game Missouri was supposed to win. And it did. Come Selection Sunday, nobody at the table is going to say "Well, they were down 12 to TCU with 4:40 to go, maybe we should knock them down a line."
*This is a game Missouri loses in the past. Experience and having been there counts. Credit Missouri for hanging in and getting it done. Also, realize how thin the margin is. If Pinson's last three in regulation doesn't fall, or if TCU gets the rebound instead of letting Tilmon try the follow jam and Brown get THAT rebound and kick it out (heads up play by the way), it doesn't change much of anything about the effort or the heart or the comeback. But it changes the outcome. And instead of praising the team for never quitting, we're all killing them for not showing up in the first 35 minutes.
*Now we wait. Maybe Kentucky can play Tuesday night. I'd think we'll know some time on Monday morning, if not tomorrow night. If not, the Tigers have a week off before hosting Alabama. That might not be the worst thing after this game, which went overtime and which six guys played 29 minutes or more. That brings me to my final thought about this team:
Missouri has an eight man rotation. There will be nights Mitchell Smith and/or Drew Buggs play more. But this team is going to go as far as its top six guys are going to take it. That doesn't mean Smith or Buggs won't come up big in a game here or there, may even be the reason for a win along the way. But the top six are the guys that are going to drag this team as far as it goes in the postseason. So for any cries for Mark Smith to sit or any of those six guys to get less playing time, that's not an option. There's no replacement. This isn't a deep team. They need three of the six to play well to give them a chance to win most games (and I'm talking about playing well all game, not just chipping in with something here and there). Tilmon seems to be a constant now. Either Dru Smith or Xavier Pinson is playing well most nights, but you aren't getting the best out of both of them at the same time often. If you can harness that, you might have something. I do wonder about the depth. Whether it's due to injury or foul trouble or simply getting to the part of the year where you play two games in three days (or more in the league tournament) I wonder if the lack of depth will catch up with them at the wrong time. But, hell, it's fun to even know they'll be playing at the right time that would offer that opportunity.
Hope you all caught your breath after that one enough to carry the Vols to victory tonight.
I’m not going to pretend everything is perfect and there are no problems just because Missouri won. But every coach in the history of organized sports has uttered this sentence at one point or another: “It’s great to fix problems after a win.” That’s what Cuonzo Martin gets to do over the next few days. It’s a lot better than the alternative (Jamie Dixon probably isn’t going to sleep tonight trying to figure out how his guys let that one get away).
Let’s start with the good stuff:
*Jeremiah Tilmon is simply a force. I think he has a legitimate chance to be the SEC player of the year. Tilmon is now averaging 13.9 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game. He has six double doubles in his last nine. In his last six, he is averaging 19.6 and nine rebounds. More than that, he has played at least 28 minutes in nine straight games, at least 30 in five straight and 35 in each of the last two. The best ability is availability and he has been available for four weeks now. So he’s shooting 50% at the line. It’s not great, but if he’s going to the line 15 times a game, you can deal with it.
I mentioned this on the postgame show, but I think the best part for Missouri is this: If you polled every guy in the locker room, they’d tell you Tilmon is the one they’d most want to have success. He’s overcome so much. He’s put so much into this. He’s a great teammate and a really good guy who’s grown up a ton. It’s good for your go-to guy to also be a very popular guy with a great attitude because there’s no chance of there being any jealousy or team chemistry being disrupted.
*Xavier Pinson is not a consistently good three-point shooter. But man he was good today. His eight threes tied a Mizzou Arena record and are tied for the third most in school history in a single game. They accounted for 24 of his career-high 36 points. Obviously none were bigger than the three he hit to tie the game with 3.4 seconds left. Once that shot went in, it was virtually inconceivable Missouri would lose this game.
*There aren't many instances of a Missouri team having two guys as good as Tilmon and Pinson were on the same day.
But the game that came to mind for me was the NCAA Tournament against Marquette. Rickey Paulding scored 36 (and hit a million threes) and Arthur Johnson had 28 and 18 and it was death inside or death outside for Marquette all day long. Like it was on this day, Missouri couldn't get a stop and went to overtime. Unlike it was on this day, Missouri lost that game. But that was the last time I remember seeing a post player and a guard being so deadly on the same day in the black and gold.
*The other four players who played more than 11 minutes on Saturday all contributed big plays. Cuonzo Martin called Kobe Brown his MVP. Mizzou doesn’t win without Pinson or Tilmon, but it doesn’t win without Brown either. He had 13 rebounds, including a couple of monstrous ones on the offensive end late and a big steal in OT. Only seven points, but game-winning plays. Dru Smith was on the bench much of the first half and didn’t score as much as he often does, but he had a huge layup in overtime and hit the free throw that iced it and pitched in. Mark Smith didn’t do a ton, but he hit one of the biggest shots of the game to cut a six point deficit to three with less than two minutes left and played some good defense. Javon Pickett scored 11 points and helped Missouri survive when the Smiths were giving them nothing in the first half. Take away the contributions of any one of those six guys and Missouri loses today.
Okay, we’ve got to leave a little spot for the bad here:
*You understood Auburn scoring 88 points. They were averaging 81 in league play and have one of the best guards in America and like to run. But TCU? In the last three games, the Frogs have scored 46, 49 and 51. They had 53 before the first media timeout of the second half. They were averaging 66. That’s not a team that should come close to 90 in regulation against a Cuonzo Martin defense.
The Horned Frogs hit some tough shots and shot much better than they usually do. But that game doesn't happen without some help from a porous defense. The main problem to me seemed to be the guards getting torched, which put the bigs out of position and TCU was getting a lot of offensive rebounds (21 second chance points on 10 offensive boards, so basically they scored a basket every time they got an offensive rebound).
Missouri hadn't given up 80 in 19 games. It's now done so twice. The good news is that the Tigers still won one of those (actually the Tigers won both, but the Tigers you like won one). The better news is this is Cuonzo Martin and I hardly think this is going to become a trend.
Other thoughts:
*Things like officiating tend to even out. On Tuesday, Missouri shot 17 fewer free throws than the opposition and Mizzou fans thought they had a game stolen from them by the stripes. Today, Missouri shot 18 more free throws than the opposition and there were at least a couple that I thought definitely could have been called on the home team that weren't and I promise you TCU fans think they had a game stolen from them by the stripes. It happens to everybody.
*This was a game Missouri couldn't afford to lose. According to KenPom, the only game that's an easier projected win than this one the rest of the way is the home game against Texas A&M. The Frogs aren't good. You'd still make the tournament with a loss probably, but it would hurt the resume for sure. It's a game Missouri was supposed to win. And it did. Come Selection Sunday, nobody at the table is going to say "Well, they were down 12 to TCU with 4:40 to go, maybe we should knock them down a line."
*This is a game Missouri loses in the past. Experience and having been there counts. Credit Missouri for hanging in and getting it done. Also, realize how thin the margin is. If Pinson's last three in regulation doesn't fall, or if TCU gets the rebound instead of letting Tilmon try the follow jam and Brown get THAT rebound and kick it out (heads up play by the way), it doesn't change much of anything about the effort or the heart or the comeback. But it changes the outcome. And instead of praising the team for never quitting, we're all killing them for not showing up in the first 35 minutes.
*Now we wait. Maybe Kentucky can play Tuesday night. I'd think we'll know some time on Monday morning, if not tomorrow night. If not, the Tigers have a week off before hosting Alabama. That might not be the worst thing after this game, which went overtime and which six guys played 29 minutes or more. That brings me to my final thought about this team:
Missouri has an eight man rotation. There will be nights Mitchell Smith and/or Drew Buggs play more. But this team is going to go as far as its top six guys are going to take it. That doesn't mean Smith or Buggs won't come up big in a game here or there, may even be the reason for a win along the way. But the top six are the guys that are going to drag this team as far as it goes in the postseason. So for any cries for Mark Smith to sit or any of those six guys to get less playing time, that's not an option. There's no replacement. This isn't a deep team. They need three of the six to play well to give them a chance to win most games (and I'm talking about playing well all game, not just chipping in with something here and there). Tilmon seems to be a constant now. Either Dru Smith or Xavier Pinson is playing well most nights, but you aren't getting the best out of both of them at the same time often. If you can harness that, you might have something. I do wonder about the depth. Whether it's due to injury or foul trouble or simply getting to the part of the year where you play two games in three days (or more in the league tournament) I wonder if the lack of depth will catch up with them at the wrong time. But, hell, it's fun to even know they'll be playing at the right time that would offer that opportunity.
Hope you all caught your breath after that one enough to carry the Vols to victory tonight.
