In the first seven games of his college career, Torrence Watson had made just eight shots and averaged 3.1 points per game. For one of the state’s most prolific scorers—Watson averaged better than 31 points a contest at Whitfield Academy as a senior—it was an unfamiliar position.
“It definitely was tough,” Watson said. “I think it was all in my head.”
On Tuesday night against Texas-Arlington, Watson found his stroke again. He made three of six shots from three-point range and led Mizzou with a career-high 12 points in a 65-45 win that was not in doubt for the final 25 minutes.
“The tough part about it, because of the landscape, the one and dones, the mentality nowadays, a guy can’t be a freshman and go through struggles. I know I went through it,” head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “It’s part of it. It’s part of the growth and I think that will make him a better basketball player when you go through something like that because those are often times the best lessons. I really wasn’t concerned because he’s not a quitter. He’s a competitive basketball player, he wants to be good. So I wasn’t concerned from that standpoint. But you like to see the ball go in for him.”
It was a relief to Watson as well.
“Struggling a little bit with confidence,” he admitted after the game. “But seeing the ball go through the hoop, it really helped.”
Watson had some help from his fellow freshmen in the backcourt. Javon Pickett scored Mizzou’s first six points of the game on three-pointers and ended the night with ten points and five boards in 26 minutes. Xavier Pinson made three of his five shots, including two to beat the shot clock, and scored seven in the win.
“It felt good for all of us just to be able to see the ball go through the hoop,” Pickett said.
Pickett came to Missouri without the reputation of being a big offensive weapon and indeed its his defense and work ethic that have had him in the starting lineup for all eight games so far. But he shoots every morning at 6 a.m. and has put more time into his offense than any other player on the roster. Pinson was and will remain more of a pure point guard and distributor than a scorer. Watson was the freshman most known for his offense, but when asked what the biggest adjustment to the college game has been, he looked elsewhere.
“I think it was defense,” he said. “I didn’t have to play a whole lot of defense at my high school. Then coming to play for coach Cuonzo, he’s really difficult to play defense for, I’ll say that.”
Missouri did plenty of that on Tuesday. The Mavericks shot just 39% from the field and had more turnovers (21) than field goals (18).
“Hopefully it was us. I’d like to think if nobody was out there they would take care of the ball,” Martin said. “I just think that’s something we have to do. I hope that’s normal with our program being able to play defense, play hard, rebound the basketball.”
“That’s always our game plan just to play good defense,” Picket added. “I feel like we played good defense in the first half.”
And the defense translated to some offensive success, especially for Watson, who hadn’t seen much up until Tuesday.
“I’ve always felt like he played with energy and played hard. As he was learning he was doing those things so that helps him,” Martin said. “I think with any guy that shoots the ball you like to see the ball go in and it went in for him.”
TURNING POINT: Despite UTA’s early struggles, Missouri wasn’t filling it up either. The Tigers led just 11-10 with 10:52 left in the first half, but Javon Pickett scored five straight points to kick off a 12-2 run and the Tigers’ lead was never less than nine the rest of the game.
IT WAS OVER WHEN: Texas-Arlington tried to dribble. The Mavericks had six turnovers before the first media timeout and ended with 21. Missouri deserves some credit for that, but UTA simply never looked like a team that was capable offensively of making a game of this one.
CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM: The bench should get a little bit deeper quickly. Martin said after the game that K.J. Santos, who dressed and went through pre-game warm-ups, has been cleared to play. He said he expects Santos to see action against Oral Roberts on Friday night.
CAUSE FOR CONCERN: Missouri still had 14 turnovers in this game, which is a little higher than you’d like to see. Jeremiah Tilmon had four and Mark Smith had three, accounting for half the team’s total. Mizzou has struggled with turnovers all season. It didn’t hurt the Tigers tonight, but will in the future.
STOCK UP: Jeremiah Tilmon. Missouri’s big man had just one rebound in the win over Central Florida on Saturday. But he grabbed 12 against UTA, including nine on the defensive end. He also went 6-6 from the free throw line and is now shooting better than 80% from the stripe this season.
STOCK DOWN: Texas-Arlington. The Mavericks won 21 games last year, but lost a lot to graduation. They’ve lost five in a row, including the game before this one to Texas Rio Grande Valley. A week from tonight, the Mavericks are at No. 1 Gonzaga.
UP NEXT: Missouri (5-3) hosts Oral Roberts on Friday night. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
