Is Norman the new Starkville? Or was is always Starkville and then Starkville became Norman when Missouri joined the SEC, only for Norman to steal it back when Oklahoma joined the SEC? Many are wondering. Maybe it’s just me wondering?
For those who aren’t sure what I’m talking about, Mizzou won their first game in Starkville. That was a game against Rick Ray when Mississippi State was awful. The Tigers then proceeded to lose every time they went to Starkville. Not only that, they often lost by a lot.
Even in seasons when they were pretty good, they still went to Starkville and got spanked. They won by 42 in the first game, then lost 8 in a row with every loss except the first being by double digits. Ironically enough that 9 point loss was Kim Anderson’s first year when they lost 52-43 in the regular season finale.
In the Big 8 days, Missouri played at Oklahoma every year and it wasn’t very often they came out with a win. It took Norm Stewart 8 trips before he won there, and another 7 before he got win #2. Norm won 5 games total in Norman, Oklahoma. He lost 26 times. That was against 5 different coaches, too. So it wasn’t like Billy Tubbs had his number or something.
This isn’t to excuse Missouri pulling into Lloyd Noble Center and laying an egg. But just to instill the feeling I had before this game. For whatever reason, I hate it when Mizzou has to play in that building. I used to feel that way about going to Starkville, but Dennis Gates has (thankfully) solved that the last few years. So I guess a question for next season is if can he solve the Norman-conundrum.
But for now it still exists, as the new Starkville. Or the re-emergence of Norman.
As for what actually happened in the game, Missouri didn’t look like they were fully engaged, and thankfully early neither did Oklahoma. The two teams struggled to take care of the ball, and generate offense. But the Sooners, unfortunately for us here, did not struggle outside the arc.
The Sooners hit 6 of 11 in the first half from deep, and had 9 turnovers. Missouri hit 1 of 9 from deep, and had 10 turnovers.
Not valuing the basketball is something which has bitten the Tigers on multiple occasions this season, as has the shooting going missing. And with a Sooners team who has been streaking here of late, this quickly turned into a loss.
TEAM STATS
Mizzou’s points per shot wasn’t as bad at the end as it seemed while the game was playing out, but they made up ground by making some threes late to make the percentages not look so poor. At one point they made four in a row, and five of six from behind the arc. But the first of those came when the lead was already 20 points. The last in that stretch did cut the lead to 12, but with 2:20 to play. Too little too late.
They were solid from inside the arc, but Oklahoma did a great job of preventing Mizzou from getting to the rim. When they got there they shot it respectably, StatBroadcast had them for 12-17 at the rim.
- But a 24.8% turnover rate it taking away every fourth shot attempt. So if you’re going to turn the ball over you’d better shoot it well from outside. And when the Tigers did not shoot it well from the outside, the margin in the game widened.
- Wasn’t I just praising Missouri’s free throw shooting? Hahahah…. ahhhhh, yeah. But like so many things this year, they’re just inconsistent. When they’re good they’re good, but they’re not consistently good all the time. So while they were clanking threes, I guess they thought also, why not clank some free throws?
Missouri’s offense has been really pretty good most of the year, but they’re 0-7 when they don’t have an offensive efficiency above 1.07 points per possession. They’ve lost just twice when they hit that number now, because their defense is solid enough most of the time. Even if you go back and watch all the Sooners three point shots, nearly all of them were guarded. While Oklahoma was kicking the ball around and making outside shots, Mizzou was just kicking the ball around.
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Trifecta: Mark Mitchell, Anthony Robinson II, Trent Pierce
On the season: Mark Mitchell 57, Jayden Stone 33, Anthony Robinson 20, Jacob Crews 19, T.O. Barrett 16, Trent Pierce 12, Shawn Phillips 10, Jevon Porter 5, Sebastian Mack 3, Trent Burns 1, Annor Boateng 1
If you’d have given me the trifecta beforehand, I’m not sure I would have thought the game went this poorly. Mark Mitchell had a big night? Well… he was good but only attempted 6 shots, and was 4-8 from the free throw line. Oklahoma made his life very difficult all night. Any time Mark got the ball in position to operate, OU sent two. Like most nights, Mitchell continued to make good reads, but with the jumpers not falling his assist rates fell. He also coughed the ball up 4 times, which for a guy with a 13% turnover rate on the season is pretty high.
Next, Anthony Robinson has been more of a factor, and had one of his better games, but also was racking up the fouls. Ant’s outside shooting improvement continued, he’s up to over 30% on the season. Which considering his 2 for 27 streak from the Kentucky game through the Texas A&M game, that’s pretty remarkable! I don’t know, small victories on that one.
Four players failed to reach 100 ORtg, and Jayden Stone having a 35% usage rate and a 65.9 ORtg isn’t sustainable for winning a road game. That’s just way too much efficiency thrown out the door. This is two out of the last three games where Stone has been completely MIA, and in the third he wasn’t needed and still was only 1-5 from the field. It might behove Gates and crew to get Stone back on track.
He and Shawn Phillips, you might want Phillips to not turn it over 80% of the time.
All being told, the talent difference between Oklahoma and Missouri isn’t that great, and OU played a lot harder. They lost 9 straight in conference play, but they were close in several of those games, and we all saw how the last game against Missouri went. The Sooners have had some poor late game luck. They let a late lead get away from them against Alabama, shot 18% from deep against South Carolina, were up in the last minute against Arkansas. But they were up 20 over Vanderbilt, beat Georgia by 16, beat Auburn by 12, and beat LSU by 16. They’re playing well. And now after dispatching of Missouri, they’re higher in KenPom.
The result stinks. We probably feel better if it was a 5 point loss than a 16 point loss.
But the 3 seed is still technically on the table. The middle of the SEC is a mess. Florida has the 1 seed locked up. Alabama locks up the 2 seed with a win. Tennessee locks up either a 3 or a 4 seed if they win on Saturday. The rest?
Here’s a quick look at what matters: Mizzou is 10-7. Arkansas and Texas play tonight. If Texas wins they get to 10-7, Arkansas falls to 11-6. If Arkansas wins, they move to 12-5 and Texas falls to 9-8. So the result tonight can either lock in a top 4 finish for Arkansas, or make things even messier.
Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Texas A&M are all also 10-7. So there’s a logjam and Mizzou has beaten all of those teams, except for Texas… who still has to beat Arkansas at Arkansas.
On Saturday, Kentucky plays Florida at home. Arkansas plays at Mizzou, Tennessee and Vanderbilt play in Knoxville, Texas A&M is at LSU, and Texas is home against Oklahoma. The only other result that might matter is Georgia plays at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are 9-8, and could get to 10-8 with a tie breaker over Mizzou.
So those are the games you need to pay attention to. I’d root for Arkansas to beat Texas tonight. It takes pressure off the Hogs to win at Mizzou, and takes Texas out of the teams who can get to 11 wins. I’d also root for Vanderbilt to beat Tennessee, Florida to beat Kentucky, LSU to beat Texas A&M, and Oklahoma to beat Texas all on Saturday. And for good measure, for MSU to beat Georgia. Some of those are less likely than others.
Basically, there’s a LOT still in play because the middle of the league is so mashed together. But the summary is this: go beat Arkansas. Worry about the rest later.
I’ve moved the glossary to a static page at RockM+ to reduce the size of the bottom of this post.
So if you’re looking for what any of these stats mean, Check out the Glossary!
In attempting to update Study Hall, I’ve moved away from Touches/Possession and moving into the Rates a little more. This is a little experimental so if there’s something you’d like to see let me know and I’ll see if there’s an easy visual way to present it.
If there’s something you’d like to see more of an explanation on, drop a note and let me know!
