2021 Macadoodle's Mailbag: 12th Edition

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GD: I'm not sure there will be an extension. I know Jim Sterk talked about the possibility a few weeks ago, but things didn't exactly go smoothly after that. It's possible, but I'm not at all confident it's a certainty. I shared my thoughts on it earlier this week.But I think what you're asking is could Missouri sign an extension with Martin and reduce the buyout, or change the dates on which they could fire him. I can't see how that's possible. Why is Cuonzo going to sign that deal? Why would he agree to something that says "You can superficially add more years to my contract but make it easier and cheaper for you to get rid of me?" He wouldn't. If he did, his agent should fire him.

GD: Strip away the snark and you make a good point. It's long been talked about how Cuonzo is one of the most conservative coaches in the country playing guys who get two fouls in the first half. And we all know Jeremiah Tilmon has had foul issues throughout his career. But Saturday was the most obvious and the most damaging for Mizzou. And I want to be clear, this isn't hindsight. Plenty of us saw the issue in real time.

GD: Tilmon picked up his fourth foul with 4:04 to play. I understood taking him out right then. He's a guy who has consistently throughout his career picked up a foul, gotten frustrated, and picked up another one 12 seconds later. You couldn't have that. The TV timeout was one dead ball away. So I thought it was smart to take him out of the game, bring him to the bench, calm him down, tell him Missouri had to have him for the final few minutes of the game and then put him back in after a three or four-minute break provided by the (extended) TV timeout.

So the dead ball came with 3:44. That's only 20 seconds of game time. At that point, it was 58-55 Oklahoma and Dru Smith was going to the line. He ended up making both. If Tilmon is back on the floor there, you've got a one-point game and the guy who, to that point, had been your best player on the floor for the final 3:44 or until he picks up another foul.

But Tilmon wasn't on the floor. Oklahoma's next possession was a three-pointer by Brady Manek on a blown defensive assignment. That put the Sooners up four. Whether that happens if Tilmon is on the floor, who knows? A Drew Buggs turnover led to an Elijah Harkless jumper that put Oklahoma up six. Then came what I thought was the most critical possession of the game (and the season) to that point. It ended with a missed three-pointer by Mitchell Smith with 20 seconds left on the shot clock. Kobe Brown fouled Austin Reaves who made two free throws and at that point, Tilmon came back in. There was 2:15 left in the game. Tilmon had sat for 89 seconds and in that time Missouri's deficit went from one point to eight. The Tigers cut it to three, lost by four and Tilmon never picked up another foul.

There were a lot of things you could nitpick in the loss. None of them was more obvious than the 1:29 Tilmon spent on the bench to me. It didn't make sense in real time and it doesn't make sense now.

GD: They needed to allow enough time for testing prior to the First Four once everyone got to the bubble. That meant they bumped those games back to Thursday, which meant they started the first round Friday. The Sweet 16 is Saturday/Sunday and the Elite Eight Monday/Tuesday. The Final Four is on its usual Saturday/Monday schedule.