If you asked me to sum up the result of this game as succinctly as possible, I would simply say that Dennis Gates’ Missouri Tigers played their most Tennessee game of the year, and beat Tennessee with it.
Sure there are some statistical discrepancies within that thought, but any preview for this game will talk about how Tennessee relies upon the scoring of just two players, and they play their usual stout defense. It works for them, most of the time. They are the best offensive rebounding team in the country,
and when you see how their threes carom off the rim, that makes sense. At least half of their offensive rebounds on the night felt like they just bounced long off the rim and right to a Tennessee player standing there.
But Gates’s teams have always given Rick Barnes trouble. In year 1 under Gates, the Tigers beat Tennessee twice. In the second year, the Tigers had a lead in the second half before succumbing to a late Vols run led by Dalton Knecht. Last year the Vols needed an outlying shooting performance to overcome the Tigers at home. And now this year, Mizzou’s defense carried the day.
Mizzou got everything from T.O. Barrett and Mark Mitchell. The two combined for 51 points on just 20 shots, and zero made threes. It got enough from everyone else.
Tennessee was actually the team who got the more balanced scoring, if you can believe it. They had four Vols in double figures, but only one other scored at all… Dewayne Brown had 5 points.
It was an unusual game, but one that felt like a lot of Mizzou games we’ve seen this year. The Tigers found a way.
Despite the 12-2 hole they found themselves in to start, despite missing every three point attempt until their 11th. Despite giving up a heap of offensive rebounds, despite the first scoreless game from Jayden Stone of the season, and despite shooting just 23.7% from three point range. They won, and beat a good team.
The win locks in another Quad 1 win. And makes Missouri an even more attractive team to the tournament selection committee now with three to play.
TEAM STATS
For the struggles Missouri had keeping Tennessee off the offensive glass, they made up for it by forcing the Vols into 15 turnovers. In a 66 possession game, UTs 15 turnovers almost fully negated their 18 Offensive rebounds. So if you’re doing the possession math, Mizzou won the possessions minus turnovers, by 7 and went to the free throw line 22 times. Tennessee had 51 possesions minus turnovers and went to the line 14 times.
Sure the Vols attempted 8 more FGAs, but they were -9 at the Free Throw line, which basically negates some of that at well. Overall, it was a very good night for the Tigers outside of one single stat, and it’s the thing the Vols are best in the country at. That was enough to get the win.
- A key to beating Tennessee is getting to 1.1 points per possession on offense, they’ve only won twice when allowing more than 1.09 ppp and Missouri hitting 1.11 made things difficult for the Vols to catch up once Ament stopped sinking jumpers. You don’t have to be a blowtorch offensively because Tennessee does struggle to generate points, and some of that comes from their ball handlnig woes. Their 22.8% turnover rate was the 4th highest on the season, and three of those were losses (Florida, Syracuse) with the lone win coming over Mercer in a workmaklike effort.
- I thought an important aspect of getting north of that 1.1 ppp was Mizzou’s high efficiency at the rim, and being good at the FT line. Per Statbroadcast, the Tigers were 15-21 on layups, and 2-2 on dunks, so 17-23 at the rim. For all of Tennessee’s size, they weren’t enough of a deterrent for the Tigers, and at least some of that is T.O. Barrett taking advantage of his size and strength advantage over the UT guards.
Don’t feel bad about Mizzou giving up 46.2% on the glass, that’s actually an average game for UT, they’ve beaten that mark in conference play 8 times. Maybe that’s hard to believe when you see the collect nearly half of their misses, but that’s just how they play. They’ve got really good, athletic, post players who are great at either getting the rebound or tipping the ball out for someone else to grab.
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Trifecta: T.O. Barrett, Mark Mitchell, Trent Burns
On the season: Mark Mitchell 54, Jayden Stone 31, Jacob Crews 19, Anthony Robinson 18, T.O. Barrett 16, Trent Pierce 10, Shawn Phillips 7, Jevon Porter 5, Sebastian Mack 3, Trent Burns 1, Annor Boateng 1
A small side story about this game is Mizzou was heavily recruiting both Bishop Boswell and T.O. Barrett for a single guard spot. When it comes to recruiting, it’s impossible to know all the angles but Boswell visited Missouri towards the end of June in 2023, just days after Boswell left campus.
I’m not trying to say T.O. played with a chip on his shoulder in this matchup, but it sure seemed like he was playing possessed at times. He was just dominant with the ball in his hands, hitting 34.6% usage rate on the game and still scoring 1.25 points per possession on 21+ possessions, per the math. That’s a lot of work, and quality work on top of it. The 28 points are obviously a career high, but his 17 field goal attempts is the same amount of shots he took in the first five games of the season. On the season his 22.8% TOV rate is still high, that he’s putting up this kind of efficiency while still turning the ball over a bit too much is just another thing he can work on in the offseason. But last night was peak TO.
It’s wild that Mark Mitchell played 35 minutes, scored 23 points, had a 134 ORtg and he was an afterthought because of how dominant Barrett was. I posed a question about the better senior season on the Feed today, but as much fun as Kobe was, I’m partial to Mark’s season. He’s just become a terrific playmaker, and play finisher. Mark’s also had to be there every night, whereas Kobe could have an off night and get picked up by someone else because the depth and scoring on that roster was a touch better. Kobe had 4 conference games where he missed double figure scoring, Missouri won two of those games. Mark has only had one game where he didn’t hit double figures and that was against A&M when he had 8 assists. From a sheer usage and minutes played standpoint, I give the edge to Mark.
Hey how about Trent Burns making the trifecta!
Burns has impressed a lot of people over the last 3 games with his steadiness, some of the offense is still a work in progress but you can see how he uses that 7’5 frame to just get in the way really well. Two of his four steals came by poking the ball away from guards. Tennessee found some consistent offense attacking him on side Pick and Rolls in the second half, so it’s clearly not perfect, but Missouri probably just needs to change up how they’re defending those when he’s the target defender.
But Mizzou got 0 from Jayden Stone and won. That inofitself is an accomlishment, and a testament to the rotation being as tight as it’s been. Mizzou needed Trent Pierce and Anthony Robinson just just make a few shots, and they did. The Tigers only made 4 threes all game, and all four came in the second half from those two guys.
So now the Tigers are 9-6 in SEC play with games to play tonight in the midweek. Texas A&M is 9-5 but they’re at Arkansas. Vanderbilt is 8-6 and they host Georgia, Texas is 8-6 and they host Florida. The Kentucky Wildcats beat South Carolina and are also 9-6. So those are the teams to keep an eye on for seeding purposes in the SEC Tournament. Mizzou holds the tiebreakers over Vandy, A&M, and Kentucky, but don’t hold the head to head over Texas.
Then up next is on the road at Mississippi State who just might be down their 2nd leading scorer. I think if Missouri can win that game, they’re a virtual lock for the NCAA Tournament regardless of what happens next week. Things can always happen, but a 10 win team in the league with the wins they have will have an awfully good case.
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!
