We’re going to do this a little differently today. Rather than ten thoughts all on a football game, it’s ten thoughts on Mizzou as a whole. I’ll split them half and half between football and basketball. And it might be a stretch to come up with five on football. So I’ll start with hoops.
Let me say this first: The officiating was awful. Both ways. Pretty much all night. I’m not going to parse which team got the worst of it or which bad call decided the game. Two good teams were called for 52 personal fouls and the refs tried to take over the game and it’s always terrible when that happens. Fans of one team believe the officials are the reason their team lost. Fans of the other team believe their team won despite the best efforts of the officials to cause them to lose. That’s out of the way. We get it.
Yes, Jeremiah, the officiating was awful. Let’s move on to other stuff.
1) I’m buying stock in this Missouri team. The Tigers should debut in the top 25 this week and I think they should debut in the top 20. If we’re being honest, there’s no way there are ten better resumes in college basketball right now. I’m not sure there are five. This team has two wins over ranked teams, a road win, a neutral court win and three wins over likely NCAA Tournament teams. If you don’t believe in them now, I don’t know what it would take. Cuonzo Martin has a team he knows. He’s set his rotation, he’s letting them play the way they’re built to play and this is going to be a really fun team to watch. Could Saturday have been prettier and easier? Sure. But nobody cares when the selection committee sits down in March. They’ll see you beat the sixth ranked team in the country.
Speaking of rankings, your thoughts Cuonzo?
“It doesn’t matter to me. I think it might matter to our fans and I think it matters to an extent to our players, just for the fact they’re recognized for their work,” Martin said. “Because if we’re not ranked, it’s all foolishness anyway so what’s the point in having it? That means you’re telling me there are 25 teams in America better than us. We beat two ranked teams. How many teams in America can say they beat two ranked teams? How many teams in America can say they won a true road game? It’s all phony to me at the end of the day. I don’t know why you rank teams anyway until after maybe December. That’s all that buddy-buddy behind the scenes stuff I’ve never been a fan of because I don’t cut no side deals and I don’t have those type of relationships. I don’t worry about it because I know what it is. I could care less but I know it means something to the players.”
I mean, it sounds like it kind of matters. At least a little.
2. Missouri played without Jeremiah Tilmon for basically the entire game, without much of anything from Mark Smith for the second straight year against Illinois and it went toe to toe and won the game. And it really dominated the game. The Tigers got contributions from Parker Braun and Mitchell Smith (man did they get big contributions from Mitchell Smith) and a big scoring night from Kobe Brown (the shots in the final 60 seconds were…less than ideal) and Jordan Wilmore even chipped in for a while. Illinois has more stars. Missouri had a balanced team. Missouri had six players score five or more points. Illinois had six players score period. The Illini’s top three (Dosunmu, Cockburn, Curbelo) combined for 69 of the team’s 78 points and 40 of its 55 field goal attempts.
In the end, the balance won out. Well, that and Xavier Pinson making a monster bucket to give the Tigers a four point lead and Dru Smith playing excellent defense which led Ayo Dosunmou to, well, I don’t know exactly what he did. Oh, free throws were kind of big too. Missouri was 26-31 (oddly missing three of its final four). Illinois was 17-28. Missouri won by three. Do the math.
3. Someone should tell Javon Pickett every game is against Illinois.
In three years against the Illini he is averaging 15.7 points and five rebounds per game. In the other 64 games he has played in his career, he is averaging 7 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. He basically doubles his output when the Illini show up. Illinois wanted Jeremiah Tilmon to stay. It signed Mark Smith. It didn’t even put up a fight when Pickett chose to leave. Think he remembers that? I sure do. It should also be mentioned that Pickett has gone from starting 52 of 62 games in his first two seasons to coming off the bench this year. And he hasn’t said a word and he won’t. Not every player could handle that. Pickett can. It shouldn’t go unnoticed.
4. Cuonzo Martin deserves a lot of credit. Part of my skepticism about this team was that I didn’t really believe he’d let them play this way. It’s tough for a guy who’s known one style all his life to embrace a different one. Cuonzo has been trained his whole life to view a 62-60 win as beautiful basketball. The last couple years, he’s talked about knowing the importance of playing with pace and scoring, but his teams have still largely engaged in hideous rock fights. Not this team. He’s letting them go. He’s letting them play through some mistakes. And it’s working. Twenty fast break points for a Cuonzo Martin team? You serious? If he keeps this up, Mizzou might end up with two SEC coaches of the year.
5. So what’s the ceiling for this team? A week or two ago, I’d have said a six seed. It’s higher than that. Illinois is a legit top ten team that just went and won at Cameron Indoor. Duke may not be traditional Duke, but that’s nothing to sneeze at. The Tigers can play with just about anybody. I won’t call them the SEC favorite, but there’s no reason they can’t be in the discussion to win the SEC. A double bye in the league tournament (top four finish) should be the expectation. Not the hope, but the expectation. This team has proven everything it can prove through five games. There will be a bump or two along the road, but I’m on board.
Let me say this first: The officiating was awful. Both ways. Pretty much all night. I’m not going to parse which team got the worst of it or which bad call decided the game. Two good teams were called for 52 personal fouls and the refs tried to take over the game and it’s always terrible when that happens. Fans of one team believe the officials are the reason their team lost. Fans of the other team believe their team won despite the best efforts of the officials to cause them to lose. That’s out of the way. We get it.
Yes, Jeremiah, the officiating was awful. Let’s move on to other stuff.
1) I’m buying stock in this Missouri team. The Tigers should debut in the top 25 this week and I think they should debut in the top 20. If we’re being honest, there’s no way there are ten better resumes in college basketball right now. I’m not sure there are five. This team has two wins over ranked teams, a road win, a neutral court win and three wins over likely NCAA Tournament teams. If you don’t believe in them now, I don’t know what it would take. Cuonzo Martin has a team he knows. He’s set his rotation, he’s letting them play the way they’re built to play and this is going to be a really fun team to watch. Could Saturday have been prettier and easier? Sure. But nobody cares when the selection committee sits down in March. They’ll see you beat the sixth ranked team in the country.
Speaking of rankings, your thoughts Cuonzo?
“It doesn’t matter to me. I think it might matter to our fans and I think it matters to an extent to our players, just for the fact they’re recognized for their work,” Martin said. “Because if we’re not ranked, it’s all foolishness anyway so what’s the point in having it? That means you’re telling me there are 25 teams in America better than us. We beat two ranked teams. How many teams in America can say they beat two ranked teams? How many teams in America can say they won a true road game? It’s all phony to me at the end of the day. I don’t know why you rank teams anyway until after maybe December. That’s all that buddy-buddy behind the scenes stuff I’ve never been a fan of because I don’t cut no side deals and I don’t have those type of relationships. I don’t worry about it because I know what it is. I could care less but I know it means something to the players.”
I mean, it sounds like it kind of matters. At least a little.
2. Missouri played without Jeremiah Tilmon for basically the entire game, without much of anything from Mark Smith for the second straight year against Illinois and it went toe to toe and won the game. And it really dominated the game. The Tigers got contributions from Parker Braun and Mitchell Smith (man did they get big contributions from Mitchell Smith) and a big scoring night from Kobe Brown (the shots in the final 60 seconds were…less than ideal) and Jordan Wilmore even chipped in for a while. Illinois has more stars. Missouri had a balanced team. Missouri had six players score five or more points. Illinois had six players score period. The Illini’s top three (Dosunmu, Cockburn, Curbelo) combined for 69 of the team’s 78 points and 40 of its 55 field goal attempts.
In the end, the balance won out. Well, that and Xavier Pinson making a monster bucket to give the Tigers a four point lead and Dru Smith playing excellent defense which led Ayo Dosunmou to, well, I don’t know exactly what he did. Oh, free throws were kind of big too. Missouri was 26-31 (oddly missing three of its final four). Illinois was 17-28. Missouri won by three. Do the math.
3. Someone should tell Javon Pickett every game is against Illinois.
In three years against the Illini he is averaging 15.7 points and five rebounds per game. In the other 64 games he has played in his career, he is averaging 7 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. He basically doubles his output when the Illini show up. Illinois wanted Jeremiah Tilmon to stay. It signed Mark Smith. It didn’t even put up a fight when Pickett chose to leave. Think he remembers that? I sure do. It should also be mentioned that Pickett has gone from starting 52 of 62 games in his first two seasons to coming off the bench this year. And he hasn’t said a word and he won’t. Not every player could handle that. Pickett can. It shouldn’t go unnoticed.
4. Cuonzo Martin deserves a lot of credit. Part of my skepticism about this team was that I didn’t really believe he’d let them play this way. It’s tough for a guy who’s known one style all his life to embrace a different one. Cuonzo has been trained his whole life to view a 62-60 win as beautiful basketball. The last couple years, he’s talked about knowing the importance of playing with pace and scoring, but his teams have still largely engaged in hideous rock fights. Not this team. He’s letting them go. He’s letting them play through some mistakes. And it’s working. Twenty fast break points for a Cuonzo Martin team? You serious? If he keeps this up, Mizzou might end up with two SEC coaches of the year.
5. So what’s the ceiling for this team? A week or two ago, I’d have said a six seed. It’s higher than that. Illinois is a legit top ten team that just went and won at Cameron Indoor. Duke may not be traditional Duke, but that’s nothing to sneeze at. The Tigers can play with just about anybody. I won’t call them the SEC favorite, but there’s no reason they can’t be in the discussion to win the SEC. A double bye in the league tournament (top four finish) should be the expectation. Not the hope, but the expectation. This team has proven everything it can prove through five games. There will be a bump or two along the road, but I’m on board.
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