Shorter version...
1. If you can picture in your mind a guy pushing a boulder up a hill, that's Mizzou basketball right now. Dude keeps pushing, but even a moment's lapse, and he's getting put under. As we saw in the ISU and KSU games, there were stretches where Mizzou stopped pushing. They're not a good enough team to do that. Tonight, there were two short bursts where Temple hit a 3, threw on a quick press, Mizzou was caught off guard, they turned it over and led to another quick bucket. For those good at math, that's 10 points. That makes a massive difference, and it only took about 20-30 seconds total. That's all it took.
2. It's not what you want to focus on, but to Mizzou's credit...they keep pushing. No matter the deficit, in any of the 3 losses, they kept competing. There's value in that. When you see teams get up double digits and put it in cruise control without so much as a worry, that's when concern creeps in (see circa 2014-2017).
3. Turnovers are killing Mizzou...again. Tigers matched Temple in FG% at 52, upped them 58/35 in 3 pt% and outshot them 70/50% from the line. They even outshot them 20 to 8 in attempts at the line. The problem? Temple took 14 more shots, 7 more from 3. Their offensive rebounding was poor in the first half but got better in the second half, yielding 9 total. The result then is the turnovers. -10 in that category. Temple did a good job forcing them with comparatively fewer unforced errors than games past, but turnovers nonetheless. Empty possessions are killers.
4. The starting 5 was pretty solid when looking at the end of game stat line. 68 points on 24 of 45 shooting and 9 of 16 from three point range. The bad news? 9 points from a bench with a burst of 6 from Mitchell Smith, which shouldn't be expected. Need a lot better production from the second wave.
5. Mark Smith quietly put together another impressive outing. 19 points and 6 boards. Needed to be stronger on the ball on several occasions which led to bad run out opportunities...but I'd like to see him develop an alpha personality. His rate numbers dictate he's earned it.
6. Transition defense --> still sucks. Moving on.
7. Overall defense isn't where you want it to be. Got burned numerous times due to lack of communication on switches and scramble mode. Honestly, was a much bigger issue tonight than offense (sans turnovers).
Not the result that anyone wanted. Lot of work to be done. Could really use some positive personnel health/availability news, but it's the hand we're dealt. Better days ahead.
1. If you can picture in your mind a guy pushing a boulder up a hill, that's Mizzou basketball right now. Dude keeps pushing, but even a moment's lapse, and he's getting put under. As we saw in the ISU and KSU games, there were stretches where Mizzou stopped pushing. They're not a good enough team to do that. Tonight, there were two short bursts where Temple hit a 3, threw on a quick press, Mizzou was caught off guard, they turned it over and led to another quick bucket. For those good at math, that's 10 points. That makes a massive difference, and it only took about 20-30 seconds total. That's all it took.
2. It's not what you want to focus on, but to Mizzou's credit...they keep pushing. No matter the deficit, in any of the 3 losses, they kept competing. There's value in that. When you see teams get up double digits and put it in cruise control without so much as a worry, that's when concern creeps in (see circa 2014-2017).
3. Turnovers are killing Mizzou...again. Tigers matched Temple in FG% at 52, upped them 58/35 in 3 pt% and outshot them 70/50% from the line. They even outshot them 20 to 8 in attempts at the line. The problem? Temple took 14 more shots, 7 more from 3. Their offensive rebounding was poor in the first half but got better in the second half, yielding 9 total. The result then is the turnovers. -10 in that category. Temple did a good job forcing them with comparatively fewer unforced errors than games past, but turnovers nonetheless. Empty possessions are killers.
4. The starting 5 was pretty solid when looking at the end of game stat line. 68 points on 24 of 45 shooting and 9 of 16 from three point range. The bad news? 9 points from a bench with a burst of 6 from Mitchell Smith, which shouldn't be expected. Need a lot better production from the second wave.
5. Mark Smith quietly put together another impressive outing. 19 points and 6 boards. Needed to be stronger on the ball on several occasions which led to bad run out opportunities...but I'd like to see him develop an alpha personality. His rate numbers dictate he's earned it.
6. Transition defense --> still sucks. Moving on.
7. Overall defense isn't where you want it to be. Got burned numerous times due to lack of communication on switches and scramble mode. Honestly, was a much bigger issue tonight than offense (sans turnovers).
Not the result that anyone wanted. Lot of work to be done. Could really use some positive personnel health/availability news, but it's the hand we're dealt. Better days ahead.
