I don't have enough in me for a full column. It's the exact same game we've watched five or six other times. Missouri hangs around. They aren't consistent enough to push out to a big lead, but they hang around within striking distance. But eventually they miss enough shots that they lose because they can't consistently get stops. They either give up made baskets or they foul on pretty much every possession. As
Todd Golden said when you're in the lead, you can live with giving up twos because as long as you're converting pretty consistently on the other end, you're going to keep the lead. At least once a game Mizzou is good to give up a consequential second half run. They did it tonight after taking a 43-42 lead. After an 8-0 Florida run it was 50-43 and it just seems nearly impossible for this team to overcome that. They don't consistently do anything well enough.
*There's always a play that you see and think "That's the one." Tonight it was easy. Missouri was down three.
Sean East had what appeared to be an open four foot shot. He didn''t take it. Missouri turned it over and Florida scored on the other end. Instead of a one point game, it was a five point game. And it felt like all the momentum was gone.
*Overall East was not good tonight. But he has been good this year. Everybody gets an off night. East and
Tamar Bates are this team's two best players. But who's third? On some nights it can be
Noah Carter. On some it can be
Nick Honor. Sometimes it's
Jesus Carralero-Martin (and yes, that's a scary thing). The point is, I don't know. I don't think they know. I don't think
Dennis Gates knows. And that's a tough spot. I get all the complaints about the substitutions and rotations. I agree with a lot of them. But the point is, there's almost nothing Gates can count on. For every reason you can argue someone should play more, I can give you a point that guy should not play more. They've got two players. Tonight they had one.
*
Tamar Bates had 36 points on 21 shots. Every other player combined had 31 points on 32 shots. That's 53.7% of the points coming from one player. I'd be willing to bet there's never been a game where one guy has had a higher percentage of the points. Missouri just had absolutely nothing else besides Bates tonight.
*I asked the players after the game if they could point to one or two things they think is preventing them from getting over the hump in these games or if it's something different every night. Honor said it's defensive rebounding. He said he feels like a lot of times they get a stop, but then the opponent gets a rebound and a three and it's just a crusher. Bates said they'll string together a couple of stops, but then on the third, they give something up and they just can't close out possessions or games lately. They said they're not that far off and honestly I agree with them. They seem somewhat close. But the only consistent thing about this team is that it can't make enough plays to turn close into actual success.
*Speaking of which,
Noah Carter played 26 minutes and didn't have a single rebound. That simply can't ever happen.
*What do you do going forward? I would not play
Connor Vanover at all. I would not play
Mabor Majak ever. I would play
Curt Lewis and
Jesus Carralero-Martin little or never (again, I think Jesus is a good passer and gives you some things, but is he part of the future at all? No). Play
Trent Pierce, Jordan Butler, Anthony Robinson more. Let
Aidan Shaw play and sink or swim. I'm not saying you kill those guys' confidence if they don't have it, but I want to see what they have. Get them better. You continue to play East, Honor and Carter (though maybe a little less) because those guys gave a lot to this program last year and were part of a special season and they've earned minutes (and they're probably still three of your five or six best players on most nights). But the rest? Build for the future and accept some lumps along the way. There's no difference to me between 11-21 and 14-18. And that's really all we're probably talking about here. Missouri has lost home games to Jackson State, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. None of those teams are better than mediocre. This season's not going anywhere worthwhile. It's time to make sure the guys you want back play enough to want to come back.
*You get to the end of this season, you figure out who can't help you next year and you tell them they get unlimited transfers for a reason. Then you add the five freshmen to whoever you decide is worth keeping around and you go out in the portal and you spend whatever you have to spend to get 2-3 difference makers to make sure that this year absolutely does not happen again. Because you can survive one 12-win season because you built some equity last year and you're recruiting at a really high level. But I'm not 100% sure you can survive two of them (you might be able to with your boss, but you're going to lose all the momentum you built with the fanbase). The next two months to be are about doing anything you can to make sure next year isn't a repeat of this one. And if you can pick up some wins along the way, cool.
*The last thing I'll say is this: Nothing Gates or the players say is going to be satisfactory right now. They're a bad team having a bad season and when that happens it doesn't matter what they say. Are his press conferences frustrating? Absolutely. And I could ask confrontational questions and get angry for you guys, but it's not going to change anything. They aren't going to suddenly say "You know what? You're right. Too many of our players suck." That's not how Gates operates. So we'll do our best to ask relevant questions. Some of them will be good enough for you guys, often times people will be on here saying we're soft and won't ask the "tough questions" whatever that means. But what they say doesn't matter. What they do to get this thing turned around and headed back in the right direction matters. And they can't do that in a press conference.
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