Defensive letdown dooms Tigers against Tennessee

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If the Missouri coaching staff had a list of concerns about its team entering Tuesday’s matchup against Tennessee, defense likely would have been well down the list. Missouri has been turnover-prone at times this season, it has struggled to shoot from outside and its frontcourt got outplayed in Saturday's loss at Kentucky. Exacerbating that last point, the team received news Monday that junior center Jeremiah Tilmon would miss the matchup and be out indefinitely due to a stress fracture in his left foot.

Yet Missouri shot 36 percent from three-point range against Tennessee — above its season average. The Tigers got solid performances from bigs Mitchell Smith and Tray Jackson, tied Tennessee in points in the paint and outscored the Volunteers in second-chance points. They won the turnover battle decisively, giving the ball away 13 times to Tennessee’s 21.

Despite all that, Tennessee pulled away down the stretch for a 69-59 victory, dropping Missouri to 8-6 on the season and 0-2 in SEC play. The reason: the Volunteers shot 53.5 percent from the floor and 45.8 percent from three-point range, both the highest figures surrendered by Missouri this season.

Head coach Cuonzo Martin credited Tennessee for making the shots, but he attributed the performance more to poor defense by his own players.

“They made big shots, they made big threes,” Martin said of Tennessee. “We normally do a good job defending the three-point line, it just didn’t happen tonight. They made plays and they won the ball game.”

Missouri entered Tuesday ranked fifth nationally in both field goal percentage defense (allowing opponents to shoot 41.4 percent) and three-point defense (25.9 percent). Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said he entered the game knowing it would be difficult for the Volunteers to get uncontested looks. Yet the majority of Tennessee’s makes, especially from the perimeter, came on open shots.

Junior forward Mitchell Smith chalked the defensive breakdowns up to poor communication. Martin said his players didn’t do a good job of having their hands up and being ready to contest quick shots.

“I didn’t think we had our hands up and extended aggressively,” Martin said. “And they made shots, and they got their heads up and they played well. But I think it had a lot to do with us not doing a great job, really getting our hands up high and then being ready to contain.”

Missouri and Tennessee both entered Tuesday’s matchup 8-5 and needing quality wins to boost their NCAA Tournament resumes. For much of the evening, the game swung back and forth. Missouri overcame a six-point deficit to tie the game late in the first half and went on a 14-3 run to turn a nine-point deficit into a two-point lead in the second. The Tigers led by three points with less than seven minutes to play when a series of defensive breakdowns left Tennessee with open three-pointers. Each time, the Vols took advantage.

First, Uruguay native Santiago Vescovi, who struggled for the majority of the game, grabbed an offensive rebound off an Yves Pons miss and found Josiah-Jordan James for a three. After a miss by Xavier Pinson on the other end, Vescovi found himself open on the wing and knocked down a triple for his first points of the game. Missouri point guard Dru Smith then got whistled for an offensive foul, his fifth. Martin noted that his absence hurt the Tigers a bit defensively because of his ability to switch onto post players and hold his own. Finally, Vescovi slipped open in the corner for another open look. Swish.

Including those three shots from outside, Tennessee finished the game making five of its final six field goals. Missouri, meanwhile, missed 10 of its final 11.

“Hats off to them for shooting it like that, but we don’t give up threes like that,” said Mitchell Smith. “We’re one of the top percentage teams in not allowing threes like that, so we gotta be better in that aspect, and if we are better, it changes the game.”

After the game, Barnes noted how difficult it is to turn the ball over 21 times and still come away with a victory. The last time Missouri forced more than 20 turnovers in a loss came on March 5, 2011, against Kansas.

Normally, if there’s one thing you can count on from Martin’s teams, it’s stout defense. While Mitchell Smith said it hurt to have that be the aspect that let the team down, he also expressed confidence that the issue won’t repeat itself.

“I think guys know, defensively, who we are,” he said. “So we just gotta close out harder, hands up, people gotta be on their lines. Simple stuff that we do every day in practice. That’s not gonna happen again, because that’s not how Mizzou basketball plays. We can’t let that happen.”