A year ago we were able to experience a level of catharsis built up over more than a decade of not knowing the feeling of beating our most hated rival. And for about 16 minutes it looked like Mizzou was up for a repeat, just this time in front of a partisan crown in Kansas City.
The offense was stagnant for both teams, but the Tigers were winning the glass, and make enough plays to keep a small lead for a good portion of the first half. Mark Mitchell finished a break with a dunk with just over 4 minutes
to go causing Bill Self to take a time out. From that point on, Kansas went on a 12-2 run to close out the half to go up 8. They started the second half with an 11-1 run, totaling a 23-3 run from the 4 minute mark in the first half to the 17 minute mark in the second half.
A 20 point spread over the course of 7 minutes of game action. A 20 point loss total after 40 minutes of basketball.
There are a lot of stats below that will show how poorly Missouri shot, from all over the floor. Everything else was pretty even. But the Jayhawks made more shots. The game flow, and video will show a lot of different things. Some guys played well, more guys didn’t. But it is a game of made shots, and the Tigers didn’t help themselves out in that regard.
TEAM STATS
Last year the game was played on Missouri’s terms. The pace was faster, there were more turnovers created by the Tigers, and Missouri attempted 20 more free throws than the Jayhawks did. This year the game was completely on the Jayhawks terms. The pace was slower, Missouri struggled to force turnovers and had a tougher time getting to the free throw line. Mizzou’s 34% free throw rate was the second lowest of the season and a mark they fell short of just 7 times last year, but have already missed three times this year. It’s not a good trend.
On top of not shooting as many free throws as they did last year (Mark Mitchell is still attempting a lot of FTs but the team’s rate is down), their percentage of makes is also down.
- Since Dennis Gates was hired, Missouri has won just one game while scoring less than a point per possession, that was in year one against Mississippi State. It’s happened 24 times over four years with most of those coming in year 2. But it did happen 4 times last year. Missouri was just flat bad offensively. KUs defense had something to do with that, but the lineups didn’t always favor offense either.
Statistically, it really was a simple game. Turnovers were nearly even, rebounding was basically even, Mizzou just made way fewer shots.
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Trifecta: Mark Mitchell, Jevon Porter, Jacob Crews
On the season: Mark Mitchell 22, Jacob Crews 14, Jayden Stone 7, Anthony Robinson 6, Jevon Porter 5, Shawn Phillips Jr. 4, T.O. Barrett, Annor Boateng 1
It seems to me what’s straightforward about the things that are working for the Tigers at this point (and also clear what’s not working). Mark Mitchell and Jacob Crews are what’s working, consistently. Mitchell has been awesome, he’s increased his workload, increased his minutes, and increased his efficiency. Against KU, it was his first game with a sub-100 ORtg, and all that would have been even had he made another free throw. He’s hit double digits in every game except for the first one, and he’s rebounding more, at about 6+ per game. Mark is worth whatever he’s being paid.
Crews has done everything you could want him to. His offensive efficiency is through the roof and it’s barely dipped at all the last two games once the competition stepped up. Missouri was struggling to find offense all game long, but with Crews on the floor he’s able to draw defenses away from the rim because he’s shooting 48% on the season. He was 3 for 7 against KU, and he was also the only player with a positive +/-.
What’s not working is really everything else. Just a single player over 40% floor rate is almost certainly going to be a loss.
The jumbo lineups have been bad. Missouri started the game with roughly the same approach of three bigs (Porter, Mitchell, Phillips) and managed 1 point at the start of the game before the first media timeout. Then they went back to the starters to begin the second half and basically the same thing happened. I don’t know if Matt Harris will do a full lineup review over at RockM.plus for this game but we’re now 10 games into the season, a full 1/3 of the year, and the evidence is in: Jumbo lineups aren’t working.
Anthony Robinson is also struggling to find his way, and I think a big part of that is he has no room to operate. With Shawn Phillips on the floor posting up, Missouri is averaging 0.889 ppp, and they’re barely running pick and rolls. I looked up the Synergy profile for Missouri this year in comparison to last year and they were generating shots off a pick and roll 13.7% of the time last year, that number is down to 6.8% this year.
One might think your best offense could come with a point guard like Ant with a mobile 4 like Mark running pick and rolls in the middle of the floor with shooters spread around the three point line.
There’s also the issue with the outside shooting in that Crews is the only one making any right now. Jayden Stone is still hurt, but the Tigers as a team were shooting north of 40% when he went down with the injury. Since then they’ve shot 28% against South Carolina State, 28.9% against Cleveland State, 28.6% against Notre Dame, and now 25.9% against Kansas. Shots will fall again, but in the meantime this team doesn’t generate offense in the same ways they did a year ago when the threes stop falling. Notably their Free Throw rate has gone from 47.1% and 2nd in the country to 42.3% and 62nd. They’re also now 276th in the country is free throw percentage.
Up next are Alabama State and Bethune-Cookman. Two teams who are Q4 games at home, but both will be stingier than previous opponents. Then there’s one more non-conference game against Illinois before you open the SEC slate with Florida at home, and two road games at Kentucky and Ole Miss.
As much as it sucks to lose to Kansas, Mizzou needs to figure themselves out still. How are they going to consistently score points and keep the pressure off Mark Mitchell and Jacob Crews? Where is Anthony Robinson’s offense? Will any of the sophomores step up to provide a spark of consistency? Can they find lineups that work better for Sebastian Mack? Is there anything that can be done to make Phillips appearances on the floor more productive on both ends?
There are still way too many questions that need answering at this stage of the season.
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!
