On the biggest stage of the season, in the game that Mizzou fans had looked forward to all season long, Jeremiah Tilmon shrugged off the enormous boos from the fans of the team he had originally planned to play for and scored the first bucket of the Braggin’ Rights matchup to give the team he actually is playing for a 2-0 lead.
It was all downhill from there for Missouri…certainly for 20 minutes.
The Illini outscored Missouri 42-20 the rest of the first half, effectively ending the game on a pair of Trent Frazier three-pointers in the final minute that were sandwiched around—appropriately—a Missouri turnover.
“It seemed like we turned the ball over more than we shot,” Jordan Barnett said, citing 16 first-half turnovers. “That can never happen again.”
There are many words to describe this outing for the Tigers. Some of them are even fit to appear on family friendly Internet sites. It was, without question, the Tigers’ worst night—particularly for the first 20 minutes—under Cuonzo Martin.
“We for some reason didn’t come out with the energy we did in the second half,” said Kassius Robertson, who scored 20 of his 22 points after halftime. “Why? I can’t tell you. But we’re gonna get that fixed.”
For Missouri fans who have spent the last nine months basking in the glow of the biggest turnaround in college basketball, Saturday was a harsh reminder of just how deep the hole was out of which the Tigers had to dig. Because they are unquestionably not completely out of it. Not after Saturday.
Missouri is better than it was on Saturday night. It is much, much better than it was last year. But it also may not be quite as good as we all spent the last few months convincing ourselves it was.
The Tigers beat St. John’s and UCF. Those are decent teams. The Knights are 9-and-3. They beat Alabama. The Red Storm is 10-2. They’re both potential NCAA Tournament teams. Mizzou’s next best win is Stephen F. Austin, a team that should run roughshod over the Southland Conference.
But Mizzou has faced four power conference teams. After a season-opening win over Iowa State, Utah blew the Tigers out. Missouri gagged away a 16 point lead in the final seven minutes to West Virginia. And on Saturday night, Missouri failed to even show up until it was had dug itself a 20-point hole at halftime that proved to be inescapable.
Missouri took 27 three-pointers on Saturday night. It missed 22 of them. The Tigers turned it over 21 times, matching a season-high they set four days ago against Stephen F. Austin. Both defenses, coincidentally (or maybe not) were constructed by Brad Underwood. They had only five players score and all but 13 of their points came from three players.
Martin said after the game that the Tigers simply didn't get enough out of Jontay Porter and Kevin Puryear, whose position is "an X factor" for Missouri (never mind that's a position that was supposed to be manned by Michael Porter Jr., because that's a whole other can of worms). The pair combined for just six points, all by Puryear, on a night where Missouri's bench didn't contribute a single, solitary point.
But there may have been at least a sliver of a silver lining. As the Tigers enter an 11-day break, Martin may have found his point guard for the rest of the season.
Blake Harris ignited a lifeless Missouri squad with an injection of adrenaline in the second half. He ended the night with ten points, four rebounds and three assists, a decent if not dazzling line. He had three turnovers…but only one in his final 15 minutes on the court.
“I thought he played with extreme intensity in the second half,” Barnett said. “Nobody played really with intensity in the first half.”
“He utilized his speed. He finished at the rim,” Martin said. “He has the speed to turn the corner. And once you turn the corner, the defense breaks.”
Even a technical foul didn’t dim the enthusiasm over Harris’ second half.
“I wasn’t disappointed. I wasn’t at all. I just took him out to settle him a little bit,” Martin said. “I thought his energy was good in the second half. He set the tone.
“If he’s playing like that with that level of energy, you have to go with him.”
It's reached the point where--ups and downs and all--Missouri has to go with Harris. Because as much as anything he did, he may be taking control of the position by a process of elimination.
Jordan Geist turned it over four times in seven minutes in the first half and did not leave the bench again until Terrence Phillips fouled out. Phillips committed those five fouls in a Tilmon-like 15 minutes and had three turnovers of his own, including a crushing travel with 5:07 to play. He also failed to hang on to an offensive rebound with 1:28 to play and the Tigers trying to cut into an eight-point deficit.
Missouri would get within four, but never had the ball with a chance to get any closer.
The progress is undeniable. Missouri has come a long way in nine months. The Tigers went all in this year. If they want to get near the heights everyone has dreamed of the last few months, they have a lot further to go.
