Missouri Game Night thread 11/12/19

[whopper]

nice to get an ugly win..Carter, Scruggs, Naji all very solid and I think maybe Q may get confidence from the ending of game. Freemantle and Moore good too. Funny thing I was looking at the Evansville win over Kentucky and 2 players who had double figures last year against us (in a 6 pt loss) had double figures tonight..largely the same team. Happy Birthday Travis

[bleedXblue]

Rather have an ugly win instead of a well-played Loss The threes were going to be our undoing until Naji hit that NOOOOOOOOOOOYES shot. Carter is a keeper with a double-double. Freemantle was solid and helped the team. Jones played 33 minutes and looked sharp till the end.

Jones did not play well. Sorry....... 2/10 from the field. Several blocked/forced shots. This team is really, really easy to scout. Pack it in the paint and let us shoot away.

That was ugly. Very, very ugly.

Good D in the first half I thought. That's about the only thing you can take away from this one.

Its a W, but who the hell stole our shooting? We already struggle, but this is freakin brutal.

[muskieman]

Rather have an ugly win instead of a well-played Loss The threes were going to be our undoing until Naji hit that NOOOOOOOOOOOYES shot. Carter is a keeper with a double-double. Freemantle was solid and helped the team. Jones played 33 minutes and looked sharp till the end.

Jones did not play well. Sorry....... 2/10 from the field. Several blocked/forced shots. This team is really, really easy to scout. Pack it in the paint and let us shoot away.

That was ugly. Very, very ugly.

Good D in the first half I thought. That's about the only thing you can take away from this one.

Its a W, but who the hell stole our shooting? We already struggle, but this is freakin brutal.

I guess you missed how he held their best scorer and rebounder to 6 points and 4 rebounds? It is not all about points scored

[Anti-Homer]

Rather have an ugly win instead of a well-played Loss The threes were going to be our undoing until Naji hit that NOOOOOOOOOOOYES shot. Carter is a keeper with a double-double. Freemantle was solid and helped the team. Jones played 33 minutes and looked sharp till the end.

Jones did not play well. Sorry....... 2/10 from the field. Several blocked/forced shots. This team is really, really easy to scout. Pack it in the paint and let us shoot away.

That was ugly. Very, very ugly.

Good D in the first half I thought. That's about the only thing you can take away from this one.

Its a W, but who the hell stole our shooting? We already struggle, but this is freakin brutal.

I guess you missed how he held their best scorer and rebounder to 6 points and 4 rebounds? It is not all about points scored

Sorry Sensei,

But Jones was bad tonight. He did an o.k. job on Tillman, but foul trouble played the best defense against him. He was 4-5 in about 20 minutes of play. Carter also played him on a number of possessions. Jones has difficulty against guys who are as big and athletic as he is, because he hasn't developed a short jumper. He's a one trick pony on offense, and after Tillman intimidated him on his first couple of shots, he was done.

Marshall played decent, but again chucked up too many threes. When your shooting percentage is in single digits, shooting that many, including a couple of step backs should get him some time on the pine. Goodin is continuing his slump from last year, and now has a 1:2 assist/to ratio. Tu Holloway's a/to would be 2:1 if he played in a 3 on 5 game. I was glad to see Steele sit him for extended minutes. When Kyky gets healthy, watch out. Steele said on the Coach's Show that he is the best three point shooter on the team by far. I feel bad for Goodin, b/c he is a senior and doing his best, but he ain't cutting it.

Marshall led the team in t.o.s last year, and is tied with Goodin at 9 for the lead after three games. He dribbles too high, and dribbles into no man's land at least 3-4 times a game. Just go to the hole and be a facilitator. His three point shooting is horrid, but he's unstoppable when he goes to the hole under control.

As usual, Freemantle had a very solid game. My nephew mentioned how he wished he got more minutes in lieu of Jones, and I agree. He has both a face up, and back to the basket game, and is a decent free throw shooter. I really likes me some Carter as well. I said before the season he will be the MVP of this team, and despite his poor shooting tonight, he has a nice stroke, and can score facing up or with his back to the basket, and dribbles very well for a 4. He is also a mobile big who can guard the 3-5 positions.

As poor as this team shoots from three, that is on Steele. In one stretch in the 2nd, they missed 7 or 8 straight threes, but continued to chuck it up. I didn't listen to the post game interview, but I'm sure he stuck to his talking points by saying they'll start to fall. I know many were wide open, but there's a reason for it. They suck at it. Last year was Exhibit A. Even though Scruggs had a bad night from 3, he has proven to be a good three point shooter. Same goes for Moore, and Carter, at least based on his numbers at OH U. Until Kyky comes, those are the only guys who should shoot it with some regularity.

Allowing them to continue to chuck up threes at this rate after losing their best three point shooter from last year's team is mind boggling. I suspect if Steele plays black jack, he probably would hit on 16 after busting 8 hands in a row. Their margin of error isn't great enough to allow their Washington General offense to "work itself out" when they play good teams.

Missouri is not a good team. They're not bad, but have NIT written all over them. X would have lost by ten if this was the Shootout. Everyone knows that AH always end on a positive note, which is that Odom will be on the team next year, along with Wilcher and Jones.

Good night posters.

[X-lucidity]

Well lots of great points. Can’t argue with much of that extensive, ala War & Peace’ish, contribution from the esteemed AH above. But I was inspired to emerge from hibernation to say this: WTF was that...? Can’t put my finger on it except to note that we just seem so stale on offense. Lots of standing around waiting for someone to attack the basket. I just don’t see much off-ball screening on many possessions. Take the ‘dub, stick it in our back pocket, and move on.

[thecoach]

There's a big need for a guy like Hankins on this team. When you can't hit the side of a barn from the perimeter it's nice to have a very large guy to go underneath to and break up the droughts. Against better bigger teams, Jones et. al are just a little to undersized.

[Lead Guitar]

From the little I have seen of other games and what has been written about other teams (OSU and others), X is not in the minority. It could be the 18” the 3pt line has been moved or just early season jitters. The good point was made that the 3pt shot was open last night, because they packed it in and doubled Jones and Fremantle. I am sure in practice they are making 40%—pressure free, so they keep taking the open shot. Also, note the clock reset is just 20 seconds, which does not allow much time for a set play. Travis has said all along he wants good, open look 3’s. Last night most were open.

I think that Carter and Bishop’s shots will improve. Their rotation looks good. Naji and Q are going to be streaky. Paul will get back to last year’s stats. Moore looks good, but needs to look for his shot. Hopefully Tandy will be better than average. Relying on freshmen, this year and next, is very risky. A Bluitt does not come along too often!

[joeabe]

I am encouraged by what coach mentioned in his presser..."we didn't let our lack of offense hinder our defensive play". We played our asses off on defense and that's huge!! We will win many games with this defensive attitude. Our guys are not the best shooters but are athletic and physical....great combo to play D. We are undersized underneath, I agree with Coach's observation.
Go X

[X-lucidity]

PS. agree with Joeabe's defensive optimism. That said, I believe Steel will face a dilemma often late in tight games. Carter is clearly one of our best five and especially for point production, the ability to create his own decent shot and rebounding. His only weakness is "man" D versus a quicker player. If you noticed last night late in game and especially OT, seemed like Mizzou would run a motion offense until they had a favorable match-up where the player Carter was guarding would attack the basket. Resulted in a couple scores and a couple fouls / free throws over the last 6 or 7 minutes of play. Maybe employ a little end of game offense/defense substitutions. Will need a few more games to see if I am overreacting here. All in all, Carter is going to be way more of a positive for us, and as another poster mentioned, Tandy will be interesting to see added to mix.

[olsingledigit]

PS. agree with Joeabe's defensive optimism. That said, I believe Steel will face a dilemma often late in tight games. Carter is clearly one of our best five and especially for point production, the ability to create his own decent shot and rebounding. His only weakness is "man" D versus a quicker player. If you noticed last night late in game and especially OT, seemed like Mizzou would run a motion offense until they had a favorable match-up where the player Carter was guarding would attack the basket. Resulted in a couple scores and a couple fouls / free throws over the last 6 or 7 minutes of play. Maybe employ a little end of game offense/defense substitutions. Will need a few more games to see if I am overreacting here. All in all, Carter is going to be way more of a positive for us, and as another poster mentioned, Tandy will be interesting to see added to mix.

If you are talking about their #1, Smith, who did get two layins and a foul attempt late (they should have used him earlier IMO), I do not believe that was Carter's man. In at least one of his drives and maybe two, he beat Bryce Moore, who is supposed to be our number one defender. Not saying he isn't, because he is very good, but Smith is lightening quick and he simply beat our defenders. Again i do not think it was Carter, unless Carter was out of position to pick him up as the back up defender.