I legitimately don’t know how to feel about that game. Do the first 33 minutes where you ran up a 20-point lead on a top ten team in the country and did absolutely everything you wanted count more? Or do you think more about the final 6:13 where you got outscored 21-4 because there is a legitimate argument to be had whether the defense which was giving up layups like a broken slot machine was worse than the offense which was either throwing up too early threes or committing panicky turnovers.
I’m being truthful. I don’t know which one weighs in my mind more.
I mean, I guess it’s the first 34 minutes because you apparently provided yourself JUST enough margin to win the game? But I have to admit, I don’t feel very good coming out of that game. I kind of don’t feel like I just watched a win. Because now, no lead is safe. Every time Missouri gets up big the rest of the season, this is in the back of my head. I know they can blow it because I’ve seen them blow it.
So, good for winning, don’t ever apologize for it, but it also feels like a big missed opportunity. Instead of making a major statement, you made a smaller one and got a little lucky. It's not bad. It's never bad to win. It's just not as good as it could have been.
Credit to Mitchell Smith. He’s taken SO. MUCH. HEAT. But he won the game with the blocked shot with 4.1 seconds left (we can choose to ignore the fact that I thought Dru Smith committed a foul on the play before that if you’d like). He was legitimately the only player in the last six minutes to make a play to help close the game out. Everybody else did pretty much absolutely everything wrong.
Mark Smith, make your free throws and know when to shoot.
Kobe Brown, make your free throws.
Dru Smith, pull a Costanza. Do the exact opposite of every single thing you did for the final six minutes.
Xavier Pinson, be a little more assertive and settle things down.
Is all of this too harsh? Maybe it is. But if the goal is to be a top ten team, if the goal is a top four seed and a legitimate run in March, then the way we judge them changes. And the last 13 minutes of that game (more the last six) are a giant red flag. There was a lot to like about the way Missouri played for a big portion of that game, but now you’re going to go forward wondering if those last six minutes are lurking around every corner.
I do feel like we have to acknowledge that Missouri did this despite being without Javon Pickett (he played about 40 seconds). And, again, they deserve credit. Alabama is good and Missouri made them look very bad for a very long time. But I feel like saying “Well, they won, so all is forgiven” is really missing the forest for the trees and being too easy on them because they got lucky.
Even down to the very last play. First of all, why are you not fouling one of the country’s most prolific three-point shooting teams with a three-point lead and 4.1 seconds to play? Second, why are you not guarding the inbounds pass? Third, if you have five guys to cover their four, how does a 65-foot baseball pass get completed to the top of the key with no resistance? Fourth, Dru Smith could have been called for a foul on the three-point shot (I wouldn't have liked the call, but they COULD have called it).
It didn’t go in. And in the end, that outweighs everything Missouri did wrong there. But Missouri did a lot wrong, I thought.
In summation: Congratulations, Mitchell Smith, on bailing your team out from what would have been one of the most epic collapses of the year.
All of that said, at some point, winning close games has to be considered a strength not a product of luck. This team has played two games in which it led for a combined 76 of a possible 80 minutes. In the last seven days it has played a game it trailed by 12 with four minutes left and another it led by 22 with six minutes left. The only common thread in those games is that they won them both. They won one when two players combined for 69 points and they won one where those same two players combined for 15 points and another one didn’t even play. Whatever else they do, they usually win.
They’re about to enter a six game stretch where they’ll be favored to win all six. A 19-3/12-3 Missouri team is not unrealistic three weeks from today. If that happens, we can stop picking nits maybe.
Missouri has shown enough that there is reason to be very optimistic and to hope it can go very far. It has also shown enough that it can all go away at any time. But at least we’re interested and it matters again.
I’m being truthful. I don’t know which one weighs in my mind more.
I mean, I guess it’s the first 34 minutes because you apparently provided yourself JUST enough margin to win the game? But I have to admit, I don’t feel very good coming out of that game. I kind of don’t feel like I just watched a win. Because now, no lead is safe. Every time Missouri gets up big the rest of the season, this is in the back of my head. I know they can blow it because I’ve seen them blow it.
So, good for winning, don’t ever apologize for it, but it also feels like a big missed opportunity. Instead of making a major statement, you made a smaller one and got a little lucky. It's not bad. It's never bad to win. It's just not as good as it could have been.
Credit to Mitchell Smith. He’s taken SO. MUCH. HEAT. But he won the game with the blocked shot with 4.1 seconds left (we can choose to ignore the fact that I thought Dru Smith committed a foul on the play before that if you’d like). He was legitimately the only player in the last six minutes to make a play to help close the game out. Everybody else did pretty much absolutely everything wrong.
Mark Smith, make your free throws and know when to shoot.
Kobe Brown, make your free throws.
Dru Smith, pull a Costanza. Do the exact opposite of every single thing you did for the final six minutes.
Xavier Pinson, be a little more assertive and settle things down.
Is all of this too harsh? Maybe it is. But if the goal is to be a top ten team, if the goal is a top four seed and a legitimate run in March, then the way we judge them changes. And the last 13 minutes of that game (more the last six) are a giant red flag. There was a lot to like about the way Missouri played for a big portion of that game, but now you’re going to go forward wondering if those last six minutes are lurking around every corner.
I do feel like we have to acknowledge that Missouri did this despite being without Javon Pickett (he played about 40 seconds). And, again, they deserve credit. Alabama is good and Missouri made them look very bad for a very long time. But I feel like saying “Well, they won, so all is forgiven” is really missing the forest for the trees and being too easy on them because they got lucky.
Even down to the very last play. First of all, why are you not fouling one of the country’s most prolific three-point shooting teams with a three-point lead and 4.1 seconds to play? Second, why are you not guarding the inbounds pass? Third, if you have five guys to cover their four, how does a 65-foot baseball pass get completed to the top of the key with no resistance? Fourth, Dru Smith could have been called for a foul on the three-point shot (I wouldn't have liked the call, but they COULD have called it).
It didn’t go in. And in the end, that outweighs everything Missouri did wrong there. But Missouri did a lot wrong, I thought.
In summation: Congratulations, Mitchell Smith, on bailing your team out from what would have been one of the most epic collapses of the year.
All of that said, at some point, winning close games has to be considered a strength not a product of luck. This team has played two games in which it led for a combined 76 of a possible 80 minutes. In the last seven days it has played a game it trailed by 12 with four minutes left and another it led by 22 with six minutes left. The only common thread in those games is that they won them both. They won one when two players combined for 69 points and they won one where those same two players combined for 15 points and another one didn’t even play. Whatever else they do, they usually win.
They’re about to enter a six game stretch where they’ll be favored to win all six. A 19-3/12-3 Missouri team is not unrealistic three weeks from today. If that happens, we can stop picking nits maybe.
Missouri has shown enough that there is reason to be very optimistic and to hope it can go very far. It has also shown enough that it can all go away at any time. But at least we’re interested and it matters again.
