Tuesday night offered a first look at the 2018-19 Missouri basketball team. It was a 68-55 win over Central Arkansas that was neither overly impressive nor one the Tigers were ever in any danger of losing. It was the perfect game for a coach: A victory with a lot to work on.
Because there is so much unknown and so many new parts to this team, our first post-game column is little more than a running list of observations. From start to finish, we were just looking for things that jumped out. Here are some of those things.
*Cuonzo Martin loves Javon Pickett. Consider him this year’s Jordan Geist. Last summer, every time you asked, you just heard about how much Martin liked Geist. Nobody thought he would start, but if you listened to Martin talk about him, you’d have been foolish to think he wouldn’t. Same goes for Pickett, who said he found out about 30 minutes before the game he was in the starting five. He scored seven points, including a three for Missouri’s first basket of the season.
*Illinois fans are going to hate this team (and if my Twitter mentions tonight were an indiction, it’s not going to take long). The first eight points of the game for the Tigers were scored by former Illini signees in Pickett, Jeremiah Tilmon and Mark Smith.
*This team passes well. In fact, there were a couple of times I thought they passed it once too often. Perhaps the most visible difference in this team is Tilmon’s passing out of the post. Last year, he either got rid of the ball as quickly as he could or went to the basket. This year, he’s looking like a confident post player willing to draw a double team and kick it out.
“The biggest growth is him passing out of the double,” Martin said. “He’s still got a ways to go, but it’s fun to watch.
“The way the game’s officiated, why not throw it inside? You have to make a decision.”
“I was expecting to get more double teams and I was looking to kick the ball out,” Tilmon said. “If they don’t double team me, I go make a basket. If they do double team me, I’m looking for the guard to kick it back out.”
*Fans are going to love Xavier Pinson. He plays at the speed of the Energizer bunny and you may not always be sure where he’s going (he may not either), but he’s going to be fun to watch. He’ll throw some passes that wow everybody in the building and a few that will probably catch his teammates off guard.
*Jeremiah Tilmon did not commit a foul until just 14:40 remained…IN THE SECOND HALF. He did make up for lost time, committing four in the next eight minutes. He admitted afterward a couple of them were “stupid fouls.”
“That was the plan,” Tilmon said. “When we’re at practice, coach starts me with four fouls anyway. As soon as we get to practice, he’ll be like, ‘Tilly got four fouls.’”
*Fifteen of the first 28 shots were threes. Outside of Mark Smith, they were 1-11. The question I have about this team is its shooting. Well, at least one of the questions. I don’t know if the Tigers have enough of them to consistently settle for jump shots…and Martin doesn’t want them to.
“I would like to see more drives to the basket,” Martin said. “I thought we did a poor job going east-west on the perimeter instead of attacking downhill or even throwing the ball inside.”
*Mark Smith was the exception, though. He shot 23% from three-point range last year and never made more than four in a game. He made five in eight attempts tonight on his way to a game-high 19 points.
“I’ve been working a lot this summer on my jump shot and being more consistent. It’s great to see the hard work pay off,” Smith said. “I’ve always been a good shooter. Just at Illinois, I don’t know how to explain it, I just couldn’t make shots.”
Jordan Geist and Torrence Watson were a combined 4-16 from the floor and 1-10 from three-point range. Martin wasn’t worried about what was just an off night for both, but Missouri probably won’t win a whole lot of games against better competition shooting the ball that way. Outside of Smith and Tilmon, the Tigers were just 13-for-41 from the floor.
*The biggest concern, though, remains what it was coming in: The front court has Tilmon and….who knows? Reed Nikko played five minutes, indicating he’s still going to see very spotty duty. Mitchell Smith played 22 minutes with six points, four rebounds and three fouls. Is that enough? It might have to be because Martin said K.J. Santos still isn’t practicing.
*One thing this team can do to make up for a lack of offensive firepower is get out and run a little bit. The Tigers will likely need to create some easy baskets with their defense, especially on nights the jumpers aren’t going in.
*It’s tough to judge against Central Arkansas, but I think this should be a good rebounding team. Tilmon had four very early before finishing with five. Kevin Puryear grabbed ten and is a proven rebounder. Mark Smith had ten boards too and Geist is a guy that can help out rebounding from the guard spot.
“I always tell our guys, I don’t know where you get the idea the big guys get all the rebounds,” Martin said. “Everybody’s allowed to rebound.”
*Christian Guess not playing tells me he’s probably headed for a redshirt year barring injury
*You’d like to see this team be better than 6-for-13 from the foul line. Eight different players attempted at least one free throw. Only Mark and Mitchell Smith made every one they took.
*Games like this are experiments. It’s a chance to throw some different lineups out there, to put some guys in different roles. There will be a few more of them…but not the next game. The Tigers play at Iowa State, a pre-season tournament projection, on Friday night in Ames.
“I like it,” Martin said. “I’d love to play at home, but I’d rather go on the road, play a game and see what you’re made of. Not like we did at Utah last year. Not like that. Don’t want to do that now.”
