Finally, Jeremiah Tilmon put it all together. The big man has always been talented but frustrating, and today he played the best game of his college career. He started the day with a dunk and dominated from there. Mizzou struggled shooting the ball, as usual, but Tilmon put this team on his back. He finished with a career-high 25 points and 11 rebounds, one off his career high. He played 25 minutes with three fouls. On the other end, he played a big role in Connor Vanover shooting a dreadful 0-11 and Arkansas as a team making just 8 of 30 layups. At this point, it would probably be foolish to expect Tilmon to do this every game or even for it to be the new norm, but you hope this boosts Tilmon’s confidence a bit at a minimum. He’s always been a bit of a streaky player. If he can just stay on the floor and defend and rebound like he did today moving forward, it would be huge for Mizzou.
Tilmon is the clear MVP, but Xavier Pinson isn’t far behind. He finished with 23 points, five rebounds and four assists. He got to the rim at will and did a great job of finding Tilmon (and delivering mostly catchable passes to him) whenever Tilmon rolled to the rim. Pinson is always going to have a few plays that make you scratch your head, but he had far more good ones than bad today, which is what you’re looking for from him. Credit Cuonzo Martin for not yanking him after his one errant showboat pass on the fast break. I probably would have.
Mizzou still didn’t shoot the ball very well today. The Tigers finished 24-51 from the field and 5-19 from three. That 26.3 percent shooting from deep is actually better than each of the last three games. But Arkansas was worse. The Razorbacks shot a dismal 19-71 from the field. A team that averages 10 made threes per game shot just 7-28 from deep. Part of that was certainly the Razorbacks just missing some shots they normally make. But Mizzou also deserves a lot of credit for its defense. Arkansas came into this game averaging 90.8 points per contest, so to hold them to 68 is an accomplishment. Given its offensive struggles, Missouri is going to need to play a lot more defensive games like this in league play.
On the surface, Missouri sure didn’t appear to have a lot of balance in this game. Pinson and Tilmon combined to score 48 of the team’s 81 points. But the Tigers got back to the thing that I had been most impressed with over the course of the first six games, which was having a variety of players chip in big plays at key times. Dru Smith didn’t play well for most of the game, but he had two huge threes in the second half. Mark Smith turned the ball over eight times but knocked down a couple threes, as well, including the dagger in the final two minutes. He also grabbed nine rebounds. Mitchell Smith played his usual solid defense, even if he didn’t do a ton on the offensive end. You probably need more from some players not named Pinson and Tilmon moving forward, but credit those guys for not checking out when they struggled early today.
In the end, it may not have been pretty, but this was a huge win for Mizzou. The way they lost to Tennessee could have definitely led to a bit of a tailspin, but now you look at the past two games and splitting them is really pretty good. Arkansas wasn’t very good today but I think the Razorbacks are absolutely a tournament team at the end of the season. And Bud Walton is a hard place to win a game, even with a limited crowd. I still don’t think Mizzou is probably a top-15 team or a likely SEC title-winning team, but I feel a lot better about chalking the Tennessee performance up to just a bad night at the office and believing Mizzou is more like the team that has beaten Arkansas, Oregon and Illinois. We'll have a story, video and more content posting soon.
Tilmon is the clear MVP, but Xavier Pinson isn’t far behind. He finished with 23 points, five rebounds and four assists. He got to the rim at will and did a great job of finding Tilmon (and delivering mostly catchable passes to him) whenever Tilmon rolled to the rim. Pinson is always going to have a few plays that make you scratch your head, but he had far more good ones than bad today, which is what you’re looking for from him. Credit Cuonzo Martin for not yanking him after his one errant showboat pass on the fast break. I probably would have.
Mizzou still didn’t shoot the ball very well today. The Tigers finished 24-51 from the field and 5-19 from three. That 26.3 percent shooting from deep is actually better than each of the last three games. But Arkansas was worse. The Razorbacks shot a dismal 19-71 from the field. A team that averages 10 made threes per game shot just 7-28 from deep. Part of that was certainly the Razorbacks just missing some shots they normally make. But Mizzou also deserves a lot of credit for its defense. Arkansas came into this game averaging 90.8 points per contest, so to hold them to 68 is an accomplishment. Given its offensive struggles, Missouri is going to need to play a lot more defensive games like this in league play.
On the surface, Missouri sure didn’t appear to have a lot of balance in this game. Pinson and Tilmon combined to score 48 of the team’s 81 points. But the Tigers got back to the thing that I had been most impressed with over the course of the first six games, which was having a variety of players chip in big plays at key times. Dru Smith didn’t play well for most of the game, but he had two huge threes in the second half. Mark Smith turned the ball over eight times but knocked down a couple threes, as well, including the dagger in the final two minutes. He also grabbed nine rebounds. Mitchell Smith played his usual solid defense, even if he didn’t do a ton on the offensive end. You probably need more from some players not named Pinson and Tilmon moving forward, but credit those guys for not checking out when they struggled early today.
In the end, it may not have been pretty, but this was a huge win for Mizzou. The way they lost to Tennessee could have definitely led to a bit of a tailspin, but now you look at the past two games and splitting them is really pretty good. Arkansas wasn’t very good today but I think the Razorbacks are absolutely a tournament team at the end of the season. And Bud Walton is a hard place to win a game, even with a limited crowd. I still don’t think Mizzou is probably a top-15 team or a likely SEC title-winning team, but I feel a lot better about chalking the Tennessee performance up to just a bad night at the office and believing Mizzou is more like the team that has beaten Arkansas, Oregon and Illinois. We'll have a story, video and more content posting soon.
