and I want to be REAL clear, in no way are injuries alone to blame for 0-19. You should fall into a few wins. I am not saying Missouri was a tournament team without injuries or that John Tonje and Caleb Grill change the whole season. I'm saying NONE of that, so if those are your replies or "Even Kim Anderson didn't manage to do this" I'm ignoring those replies.
A lot of people want to know what the hell happened. I don't know everything by any means. But I've talked to some people and picked up a little bit:
In the preseason, the belief was that Tonje and Grill would start in the backcourt with Sean East. Nick Honor and Tamar Bates would be your backcourt off the bench (with I guess Pierce as the backup three, I don't really know). At the beginning of the year Honor and East were starting because Tonje was hurt. The goal was that Grill would play himself into the starting role around the Braggin Rights/SEC games. Grill got hurt before the Kansas game on Dec 9.
That meant Mizzou was playing two small guards together. Honor wasn't effective driving on offense (which he was never expected to be) and that's an incredibly limited defensive backcourt (little size and they don't stay in front of anyone particularly well). Tamar Bates also took on a much bigger role than was anticipated due to the injuries. That was a good thing on some nights, but he also probably logged a lot more minutes and miles than anticipated and I think we saw him really wear down at times. If he's playing 24 minutes a game, that's probably a much more effective player than 32 minutes a game. The injuries also forced Anthony Robinson into quite a bit bigger role than was anticipated.
Again, this isn't a justification by me. This is me trying to explain how what you saw on the court really wasn't what was planned at the beginning of the year.
I think the major disappointments/miscalculations that weren't due to injury were that Honor simply wasn't nearly as good as he was last year (again, some of that might be due to a role change) and Noah Carter and Connor Vanover didn't give them nearly what they hoped/expected. So there were clearly failures/disappointments outside of the injuries. But we all watched the last two or three months of the season going "What the hell happened?" and this at least gives you some insight into what the plan was going into the year and how it changed due to who was available.
A lot of people want to know what the hell happened. I don't know everything by any means. But I've talked to some people and picked up a little bit:
In the preseason, the belief was that Tonje and Grill would start in the backcourt with Sean East. Nick Honor and Tamar Bates would be your backcourt off the bench (with I guess Pierce as the backup three, I don't really know). At the beginning of the year Honor and East were starting because Tonje was hurt. The goal was that Grill would play himself into the starting role around the Braggin Rights/SEC games. Grill got hurt before the Kansas game on Dec 9.
That meant Mizzou was playing two small guards together. Honor wasn't effective driving on offense (which he was never expected to be) and that's an incredibly limited defensive backcourt (little size and they don't stay in front of anyone particularly well). Tamar Bates also took on a much bigger role than was anticipated due to the injuries. That was a good thing on some nights, but he also probably logged a lot more minutes and miles than anticipated and I think we saw him really wear down at times. If he's playing 24 minutes a game, that's probably a much more effective player than 32 minutes a game. The injuries also forced Anthony Robinson into quite a bit bigger role than was anticipated.
Again, this isn't a justification by me. This is me trying to explain how what you saw on the court really wasn't what was planned at the beginning of the year.
I think the major disappointments/miscalculations that weren't due to injury were that Honor simply wasn't nearly as good as he was last year (again, some of that might be due to a role change) and Noah Carter and Connor Vanover didn't give them nearly what they hoped/expected. So there were clearly failures/disappointments outside of the injuries. But we all watched the last two or three months of the season going "What the hell happened?" and this at least gives you some insight into what the plan was going into the year and how it changed due to who was available.
