-I thought the big thing Seton Hall did that kept Mizzou out of rhythm early on was hard hedging ever ball screen. It made it really difficult for Sean East and Nick Honor to turn the corner, get to the lane and make the defense rotate. Instead, they got corralled on the perimeter and had to play hot potato around the arc. Working the ball through the posts helped a bit, but the Pirates' bigs did a good job of holding their own down there. Mizzou has to come up with a better answer than what they had.
-Tamar Bates was the only one who really had anything going. You figured there was going to be some extra emotion for him and Aidan Shaw playing in front of their hometown crowd. Bates has been riding it so far. I thought he was doing a solid job defensively, too, guarding Kadary Richmond, who hasn't really been involved today. He really got the crowd going late in the first. It's the type of performance you've been waiting for from him all season. He's got to stay out of foul trouble to keep helping the team.
-Defensively, going to the 1-3-1 zone gave up way too many opens looks from outside. Seton Hall isn't a good 3-point shooting team by any stretch, but anyone at the high major level can knock down the kind of looks they were getting. The point of the 1-3-1 is to get in the passing lanes and pick off steals, but the Pirates were doing a good job of taking care of the ball. I don't expect Seton Hall to keep shooting as well as it has but the effort getting out to contest those shots has to be better.
-The answer is not, and never will be, playing Shaw and Mabor Majak together. You can get by with one non-shooter, but rolling out two when Seton Hall is pressuring the perimeter as hard as it was is a total head-scratcher to me. Jesus Carralero Martin made some solid plays while he was out there and I think the team would be better served with him getting Majak's minutes.
-Bates has kept them in the game, but somebody else has to step up offensively - it's been a quiet day for the "big 3." Mizzou should probably have the lead here, but given how well Seton Hall played, it could've been so much worse. An 8-point lead got cut down to four, the Tigers have to keep riding the momentum.
-Tamar Bates was the only one who really had anything going. You figured there was going to be some extra emotion for him and Aidan Shaw playing in front of their hometown crowd. Bates has been riding it so far. I thought he was doing a solid job defensively, too, guarding Kadary Richmond, who hasn't really been involved today. He really got the crowd going late in the first. It's the type of performance you've been waiting for from him all season. He's got to stay out of foul trouble to keep helping the team.
-Defensively, going to the 1-3-1 zone gave up way too many opens looks from outside. Seton Hall isn't a good 3-point shooting team by any stretch, but anyone at the high major level can knock down the kind of looks they were getting. The point of the 1-3-1 is to get in the passing lanes and pick off steals, but the Pirates were doing a good job of taking care of the ball. I don't expect Seton Hall to keep shooting as well as it has but the effort getting out to contest those shots has to be better.
-The answer is not, and never will be, playing Shaw and Mabor Majak together. You can get by with one non-shooter, but rolling out two when Seton Hall is pressuring the perimeter as hard as it was is a total head-scratcher to me. Jesus Carralero Martin made some solid plays while he was out there and I think the team would be better served with him getting Majak's minutes.
-Bates has kept them in the game, but somebody else has to step up offensively - it's been a quiet day for the "big 3." Mizzou should probably have the lead here, but given how well Seton Hall played, it could've been so much worse. An 8-point lead got cut down to four, the Tigers have to keep riding the momentum.
