Pourover: It wasn’t perfect, but winning doesn’t have to be

SB Nation

It’s been a while, Mizzou fans, so enjoy it.

I don’t want to pull anyone down with a reminder of the recent past, but it’s been since February 19th of last year (Alabama) since Missouri won a big game.

In fact they only have three top 100 wins since then. South Carolina, Mississippi State, and yes, Minnesota (the Gophers are sitting pretty at 94 in KenPom currently).

Hope wasn’t running through the veins of Tiger fans following the drubbing at the hands of rivals Illinois and Kansas during the month of December. I even spent some time asking Blake Lovell on our most recent podcast if there was hope for Mizzou with the Florida Gators coming into town. Blake wasn’t super positive about the Tigers hopes, and in his defense, and really the rest of us, there wasn’t much evidence things were working out for the most recent version of the roster build.

But a lot of feelings can change in a night. Florida came in as an AP top 25 team, the reigning national champions, they were 12th in KenPom, and while they haven’t looked like the preseason SEC Favorite and title contender many thought they would be… they’re still a good team.

So at halftime, after Trent Burns sank a three pointer to tie the game at 39, color analyst Dane Bradshaw said he thought Mizzou couldn’t have played a better half.

I take issue with that.

Even extending the performance to the full game, the Tigers played better than we’ve seen them play in recent games. But that was far from a great performance. It was a good one. But they can be so much better.

Dennis Gates and his staff saw the mismatches they could exploit, namely the Gator guards, and they hammered them in the first half. But if you’re looking for the cleanest basketball, you’d like to see better free throw shooting, a little better defense, better offense to close things out. All of those things would have ended with a more decisive win. Instead we were biting our nails until the last shot banged off the back iron.

But that’s the thing about this year’s Southeastern Conference, it’s not like last year. The rest of the league is as down as the Tigers are. Maybe none of them are carrying a 43 point lopsided loss on their resume, but if you get to Selection Sunday the committee rarely looks at the margin of the wins and losses. Just who did you beat, and where did you beat them? Missouri logged their first quadrant one victory of the year. And don’t look now but last year they were going into their second SEC game with the same number of Q1 wins… just one.

How they won was by getting back to the very basics. A heavy dose of Anthony Robinson II, and Mark Mitchell. Those two combined for more than 50% of the team’s field goal attempts, and played 35 minutes each. Their 33 points were pretty important.

Robinson has been engaged more and more, but last night was the first time I felt like he was the Ant we expected to see this year. 6/9 from 2 point range, 2/5 from 3 point range, 5 assists, just one turnover, and 8 total rebounds. Ant has always had this in him, but he’s needed some help around him to really excel. Help like a healthy Jayden Stone and Trent Pierce.

Getting Stone and Pierce back into the lineup has also paid quick dividends. Pierce has been missed so far this season, his 6’10 frame helps on the glass but an overlooked aspect is his ability to defend multiple positions. Thomas Haugh is a potential All American and likely 1st round draft pick, and Pierce is one of the few players in the SEC who can match up with him when Haugh is playing on the wing.

Stone back means another floor spacer, but also experience and athleticism on the wing. And he’s a good rebounder.

Gates shortened the rotation, as if to say he understood the assignment. They needed to change the narrative around the season. And while this win doesn’t erase what happened in December, it does switch up the expectations for how the SEC season can go.

With the rest of the league struggling nearly as much as Missouri, it’s left a lot of open avenues to getting your season back on schedule. Now all that’s left is to keep doing this again and again, 17 more times. Do that and Missouri is likely back in the conversation for an NCAA Tournament berth.

Study Hall will be coming later.