Talk about disappointing.
The score was tied at 41 with 14:39 left in the second half. The game had been sluggish with both teams not shooting the ball all that well from the field. But in the remaining 14 plus minutes Texas scored 44 points, including 14 from the free throw line. In turn Mizzou scored 27 points including 16 from the free throw line.
This game was as unwatchable as a Missouri game has been in a while.
Missouri didn’t play well, they didn’t shoot it well or make the necessary shots to
stick in the game as Texas expanded their lead over the course of the second half. I don’t think they proved to be the better team. Texas played better, they executed better, they shot better.
So with all that said, the officials made this game as bad as it was. The tip time was late because “essential game personnel” were late arriving due to a wreck and rumors were it was at least one of the officials. I wonder if we would have been better off had that person not arrived, or the game just proceeded as planned on time and let whoever was late show up when they got there.
Matas Vokietaitis is probably the worst officiated player in the league. He constantly holds the arms of his opponent, sets a myriad of moving screens, and acts like he’s fouled every time he initiates contact. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Shawn Phillips caught a flagrant foul on Matas within the first three minutes of the game. Once that call was made, it was easy to figure out how the rest of the game was going to be called… inconsistently.
The inconsistent whistle did seem to stiffle some of the early energy the Tigers were playing with, and that coupled with their struggles to convert shots, and the Longhorns surgence in making theirs… it was too much for them to come back from down the stretch.
If any of this sounds like I’m blaming the officials, I’m not. I’m blaming them for making this game as unwatchable as it was. And I blame them for being so poor at officiating players who are clear foul merchants, but it wasn’t on the officials that the Tigers lost. Just their fault to making my Saturday night viewing so painful.
TEAM STATS
Mizzou is a team who are prone to offensive struggles, and those struggles lead to Ls. If they’re able to hit 1.07 points per possession their record is 17-1. At 1.06 or below and they’re 0-7. Now clearly if they hit 1.08 this game against Texas, and allowed the Longhorns to hit 1.32 like they did, well that’s not going to win the game. But the defense will often follow the offense, and for more than half the game, the Tigers were getting the results they needed. Texas in the first half was at 1.06 PPP, but 1.73 PPP in the second half was just getting sunk.
I worried early on the Tigers advantages on the season — interior play, attacking the rim, rebounding — weren’t effective enough against Texas. They had 8 offensive rebounds in the first half and had outshot Mizzou from the field by 11 FGA. Which is another indicator the Tigers are going to lose, giving up 40+% ORB rate. It doesn’t happen often but they are 0-4 when that happens, and KU hit 38.9%.
- I don’t know YAY we hit 84% FTA/FGA? That was Mizzou’s highest Free throw rate for the year by nearly 20%. Mizzou shoots the ball poorly enough from the line that they’re almost better when the FTR isn’t that high. They’re 2nd in the conference at 47.2% FTR, while being 16th in free throw percentage, and they’re also last in free throw defense.
- Going to the free throw line more than half the time and only hitting 55% on your True Shooting isn’t a good start.
Texas wasn’t lights out from the field at the start of the game, or over the course of it. They started 7 of 27, and were 13-38 before making 16 of their next 20 shots. That’s what took a single possession game and made it a 14 point deficit for the Tigers.
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Trifecta: Mark Mitchell, Jayden Stone, Anthony Robinson II
On the season: Mark Mitchell 49, Jayden Stone 27, Jacob Crews 19, Anthony Robinson 18, T.O. Barrett 11, Trent Pierce 7, Shawn Phillips 7, Jevon Porter 5, Sebastian Mack 3, Annor Boateng 1
Mark Mitchell was a dominant offensive player in the 1st half, and then Texas cut him off with double teams away from the rim. They didn’t allow him the space to move and operate, and Mizzou just wasn’t able to find a second answer. Jayden Stone chipped in some points, and Anthony Robinson had some moments, but T.O. Barrett and Trent Pierce (two key cogs for this team) combined for just 9 points on 13 shots. Shawn Phillips barely touched the ball with an 11.8% usage rate, ierce was even less at 8.6%.
If you look at the below chart and check the floor rates, it doesn’t look all that bad.
But 9 possessions went to TO with a 26% floor rate, Stone had nearly 15 possessions and a 35%. Stone was pretty solid when he was able to get a shot off, as he scored 16 points on 9 shots. That’s efficient, but the 4 turnovers is what drags it all down.
If you look at the turnover numbers, outside of Stone, they don’t look all that bad. But if you go back and watch the game, T.O. had three missed half court alley oop passes, and only one was classified as a turnover. That was the first one he sailed over Phillips head on a pick and roll. One was classified as a Nic Codie block on a Nicholas Randall layup attempt, another a missed shot attempt by Phillips, but the pass was bad. He also had a shot blocked by Vokietaitis which turned into Texas ball when he caught the ball out of bounds, the decision was essentially a turnover.
Going into the season Barrett’s biggest question revolved around his decision making as a lead guard, and while he was excellent (mostly) at Texas A&M, he wasn’t good against Texas.
There was real presure on the Tigers to keep pace offensively, and they just weren’t able to do so. Texas missed 10 shots in the second half, and they collected 6 offensive rebounds. With only 4 turnovers that means they were basically scoring on all but 8 possessions. In a relatively low possession game that’s difficult to catch up to. They played great. Missouri didn’t.
The goal at the start of the week was in order to keep your tournament hopes alive you had to go 1-1. The week didn’t go as planned like you might have thought it would, but you’re still alive at 1-1. This upcoming week is another week you need to go 1-1. So I fully expect a home loss to Vanderbilt and a road win over Arkansas only because this team makes no sense most of the time.
Just one word of caution as we enter the final three weeks of the regular season. Three of the four best defenses in the conference lie ahead of the Tigers, and one of those teams you play twice. The good news is you found a way to beat the best defense in the conference, and that’s Florida. Vanderbilt is #4, Arkansas is #3, and Tennessee is #2. There isn’t much of a path to the NCAA Tournament if you can’t win at least one of those, and you probably want to grab two of them.
Might as well win them all though, if you ask me.
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!
