1. Sometimes the feeling of relief is better than the feeling of excitement. I think that's the case here. Needed to snap a 3 game losing streak (only one of which was a bad loss, or even surprising), played like shit for a half...then exhale....they did it. The season is still alive.
2. Who did we beat? Not a very good team. Vandy only rates as #86 in Pomeroy's rankings. They're 121st in the RPI (good for a Quad 2 win). Nothing exciting. But they're a tough out at home. Here's their home results since league play started (rankings provided by Pomeroy):
47. Alabama +1
14. Tennessee -8
23. Kentucky -7
61. LSU +6
20. TCU +3
71. Georgia +15
50. MSU +1
26. Florida +3
30. aTm -8
That's a mark of 6-3, all against top 75 teams. Hell, 7 of those 9 were against top 50 teams (4-3). This was not an easy game. It was not an easy situation, backs against the wall, playing against a team with nothing to lose...on their senior night. But...Mizzou got it done.
3. Defense, or at the very least, Vandy cooling off, won this game. I think it's more the former. From the 3 minute mark in the first half, Vandy scored 8 points before Mizzou took a 12 point lead with 8 minutes to go. That's 15 minutes of game time...8 points. Mizzou flipped a 4 point deficit into an 12 point lead. In what could be a season-defining stretch, Mizzou made it count.
4. Despite #3 the tigers absorbed an impressive shooting performance from 3 point range by Vandy's top 2 shooters. LaChance and Roberson hit 8-17 from 3. Mizzou still cruised to a comfortable 8 point win.
5. Mizzou wasn't facing a team adept at creating turnovers, despite our best efforts to prove otherwise in the first half. But aside from 2 missed front ends, Mizzou handled the end of game situation pretty well. You add 4 points to the tally, or even 3, and look at this game without the context of past efforts to lose, you'd be pleased with our last few minutes.
6. Numbers. Mizzou shot it well. Like...really well.
12-22 3pt (54%)
14-23 2pt (61%)
10-14 ft (really, 10-16; but that's ~season average.)
Rebounds were a wash. Shockingly, Vandy is elite on the defensive boards (did not expect to see the rank first in opp rebound % in SEC play). But part of that is probably that their defense is horrid. Mizzou coughed up 9 offensive boards, and that's no bueno.
Ballhandling. It was a tale of 2 halves. Mizzou had 5 assists and 9 turnovers at halftime. In the second half, they had 10 assists and only 4 turnovers. Imagine that. Tigers only lost the TO battle by one.
7. Player of the game. Easiest call of the year. When Jontay scores 10+. Mizzou is really good. 14-1 as a matter of fact. They're 5-10 when he doesn't.
How about when he scores 20+? 1-0.
Feast your eyes on this line:
29 minutes
24 points
9/10 fg
4-4 3 pt
2-2 ft
7 boards
6 assists
1 steal
1 block
2 turnovers
3 fouls
That's what we expected another Porter to do this season.
8. Honorable mention: Only Barnett hit double digits other than Porter. He had a nice 2nd half ending with 17 and 6. Tilmon also got us some big buckets with a 7 and 6 line in 21 minutes. Kash also hit a big bucket down the stretch when Vandy was raining 3's.
9. I think this game takes Mizzou off the bubble...for the moment. Tigers now have a 6-7 Q1 record, 5-2 Q2, with 2 bad losses. USC is in danger of falling to Q2. LSU isn't far off from jumping up to a Q1 loss. I still think only 1 more win this season might have the Tigers sweating it a bit on selection sunday. I'm not sure that they HAVE to get one more, but man, I don't want to be in that situation.
Next up? Hot Arkansas. I'll leave @GabeD to break down the conference scenarios. I think that takes the back seat to the bigger picture here.
Finally...
@BoatDan99
Dude is money. Let him do his thing. Don't rush perfection.
