They say not to look a gift horse in the mouth. So I’m going to avoid the mouth portion of this gift horse.
Mizzou won a non-conference game against SIUE by 38 points in a game where the projection was 26 points. Being plus 12 in the projected margin is always going to be a good thing. Scoring 1.47 points per possession is a good thing! Jason Crowe, Jr. setting a Mizzou record for most point points scored by a freshman in a game is also a good thing. Holding your opponent to just 0.89 points per possession…
all good!
It just felt watching this game play out that the Tigers were not nearly as engaged as they were in their last home game. Maybe it was Mark Mitchell getting smacked in the face early in the game, and never being seen again.
Maybe, even, this is a good sign? A pretty lack luster game and you beat the margin by 12 points. No Mark Mitchell and you still creamed a pretty plucky SIUE team.
The Cougars struggle to shoot the ball, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a team at that level who play as hard as they do. I’ve long been a fan of Brian Barone, and his teams play together and they fight. And the Tigers just put them away. And it was simliar to the Cleveland State game on a less grand scale, but there was no huge run. Mizzou had several smaller runs, there were two 8-0 runs in the first half, and a 7-0 run in the second. But all game long it felt as though they were just slowly slipping away.
TEAM STATS
Mizzou opponents on the season are shooting 32.2% from three point range, but the games were 12.5%, 56.0%, 16.7%. I’d happily give CSU and SIUE four more threes if we could take them away from the Billikens but I don’t think that’s how it works.
The Tigers also played a LOT of their 1-3-1 zone last night. Something we haven’t quite seen at that level since Gates was hired. They’ve often sprinkled it in as a change up, but it seemed clear Gates wanted them to spend more time with it. It wasn’t always effective, and too often the Cougars were able to get the ball in around the free throw line, and attack in 2 on 1s, but I guess that’s what he was wanting to get a good look at with his guys.
- I did mention how hard SIUE was playing, and how much zone Missouri was playing, and I think the direct result of that was the loss in the rebounding battle. Some of the losses were just effort plays, a few times Mizzou knocked each other off the ball and SIUE benefitted. In all, it wasn’t a great rebounding effort.
- A BCI of 4 to 1 is excellent though. I do think Mizzou could have easily avoided at least three or four turnovers, which would have made this ratio even larger. But I guess you’ll be happy with four to one.
Hey look at the correlation of increased assist numbers to made three pointers!
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Trifecta: Jason Crowe, Jr, Toni Bryant, Jamier Jones
On the season: Mark Mitchell 5, Jason Crowe, Jr. 3, Bryson Tiller 3, Toni Bryant 4, Jamier Jones 2, Kennard Davis Jr. 1
There are going to be games where Jason Crowe, Jr. just does what he does and everyone else kind of tags along. This was one of those games. Crowe shot the ball poorly against SLU, and he made up for it with a really nice performance. Just one miss inside the arc, and 50% outside of it. And by my count, only one (maybe two) ill-advised shots. Doing this in a game where Mark Mitchell was sidelined after the first minute was helpful.
Toni Bryant is far from a complete version of himself at this stage in his career, but he’s such a freak athlete around the rim, and now he’s able to bang in corner threes, he could be a draft pick after this season if he wants to be. That’s exactly the type of guy the NBA is looking for. But if he wanted to stick around for another year I think we’d all welcome it.
Last in the trifecta was Jamier Jones, who’s becoming an efficiency monster. His shot chart is basically AT THE RIM. BartTorvik.com now has a shot chart built in, and of Jones’ 20 FGA, just three are outside of the circle around the rim in the paint.
There’s not much you can draw statistically from these games. But the Tigers never really let the rope slip. There was a short run where they let a 38 point lead down to 32, and a 34 pointn lead down the 27. The first one started when Jones, Trent Pierce, and Bryson Tiller allowed on red jersey to get a rebound while they watched, and then Kennard Davis, Jr. tried a heat check three, and a turnover by Tiller when he left the floor at the free throw line and didn’t know what he wanted to do. The next happened when the Tigers missed a few threes. Each set occurred while Aaron Rowe was on the floor, and neither run were his fault. Lending more creedence to the thought that strict +/- stats aren’t super helpful.
Mainly because I thought Rowe had his best minutes of the season. That offensive rebound Tiller, Jones, and Pierce gave up? It came after Rowe supplied really good ball pressure on a dribber and forced a tough long two point jumper. More of that and Rowe could see more minutes. Just take care of the ball, and defend, and he can help.
Trent Burns might be the best passer on the team, or at least of the big men, but he needs to compete more on the glass, and play with his size. He’s 7’5 but seems to intimidate hardly anyone as a shot blocker. The passing? It’s poetic! The rest? It needs to be a lot better.
There were a lot of posisitves to take away. And doing all of it without Mark Mitchell, your leader, for virtually all of the game is one of the big ones. So why does it feel emptier than the CSU game? Probably because they were sandwiched with a loss in St. Louis. I think I speak for a lot of Missouri fans when I said the Quad 4 blowouts are fine, and I know why they’re scheduled. But there are a LOT of Q1 games coming up, and Mizzou needs to start winning some of them. Maybe start with this Sunday against Marquette!
