Tuesday Morning Shootaround

Fantastic game in Columbia, Missouri last night. The Tigers came out fired up, playing their first meaningful game on national television in a long time (which just so happened to be against Border War rival Kansas). Mizzou could not hit anything in the first half as they shot just 24% from the floor in the first half, digging a 30-16 hole at halftime. The Tigers were also 2-7 from the line in the first half and got out rebounded 30-15.

The second half was a different story, as the Tigers pressure would bring them back. All told, Kansas turned the ball over 27 (yes, 27!!) times. The Tigers forced not only the Jayhawk freshman, but Sherron Collins as well, to play at a pace that was much too fast. The key to beating a press like the one Missouri runs is to attack it, to try and score against. But you have to have enough poise to know when to pull the ball back out and run your half court offense. Kansas did not have that poise in the second half.

For the most part, if you are inexperienced against a press, you are going to be fine until those first couple of turnovers. Once the defense forces two or three in a row, it is going to not only get in the head of the offensive players, but the guys playing defense are going to be just that much more fired up.

This is exactly what happened to Kansas. They just lost the ability to beat the press down the stretch.

If Missouri had played smarter offensively, then they might have won this game by 10 or 15. The Tigers essentially made three pushes, twice cutting the lead down to three. Both times, they had the ball when they were down three, and both times freshman Kim English took a terrible shot that took the momentum out of Mizzou's hand. The first time, when the lead was cut to 46-43, Kansas responded with a quick 8-0 run that pushed the lead back to 11. The Tigers would score the next eight, but again, after a dumb shot by English, the Jayhawks would get back-to-back buckets, which pushed the lead to seven with under four minutes left.

But the Tigers again bounced back by scoring nine straight to take a two point lead with under a minute left. Mario Little hit a jumper to tie the game, which set up this final possession (watch the whole video, the interview at the end is funny):



DeMarre Carroll led Missouri with 22 and 7 boards while Leo Lyons added 13. Zaire Taylor, who hit the game winning shot, had seven. Sherron Collins did not play well, finishing the game with just nine points on 4-13 shooting. Cole Aldrich added 15 boards and five blocks, but just eight points. Tyshawn Taylor led the Jayhawks with 11, but also tied for the team leader in turnovers (with Collins) with six.

This is a huge win for Missouri. They have been climbing up the rankings and the computer rankings of late, but a lot of people have questioned whether they deserve. Coming back from 14 against a talented, albeit young, Kansas team should prove to a lot of doubters that Mizzou is here to stay.

The only other game of significance took place in Pittsburgh as the Panthers knocked off West Virginia 70-59. This was as ugly of a game as you are ever going to see. It's bad enough that both of these teams play a slug-it-out style of basketball, but pretty much every star in this game was in foul trouble. Da'Sean Butler and Alex Ruoff played a combined 42 minutes before they both fouled out. DeJuan Blair played just 16 minutes before picking up a tech with seven minutes left in the game (he didn't return). Levance Fields only played 26 minutes.

With the Panthers, you know about Blair and Fields and Sam Young. But what makes this team a national title contender is the play of Ashton Gibbs, Jermaine Dixon, and Brad Wanamaker. The knock on Pitt early in the season was that they had great inside play, they had an excellent point guard, and they had a scorer on the wing, but none of the guys around those three could shoot well enough to keep the floor spread. Well, Gibbs is the Big East's best shooter (50% from deep leads the league, although he barely makes the required one-per game), Wanamaker is hitting them at a 46% clip, and Dixon, who is only shooting 31% from deep on the year, has made 15 or his last 28 (his was around 15% before that).

Pitt's defense is always going to be tough, but when those three are knocking down shots, it makes the Panthers so much better offensively.