After watching the film of his team’s first road contest of the season, a 63-58 overtime loss at No. 21 Xavier on Tuesday, Missouri basketball coach Cuonzo Martin admitted that his team “didn’t play well.” The Tigers turned the ball over 20 times and shot just 33 percent from the field.

Yet, the team led for the majority of the second half and by five points with four minutes left In regulation. Martin said he came away from the game encouraged by one aspect of Missouri’s performance: its defense. Xavier shot 32.8 percent and made three of 21 three-pointers. The Musketeers mustered just 40 points in the first 36 minutes of the game. They got hot in the final few minutes of regulation and overtime, but Martin came away from the game believing his team can field one of the best defenses in the country. KenPom currently ranks the Tigers No. 8 nationally in defensive efficiency.

“I said to our guys, jokingly but also serious, just imagine how good you could be if you actually enjoyed playing defense?” Martin said. “And I think that’s the separation, really taking pride and understands what it means.”

After a six-day break from competition, Missouri won’t face an opponent quite as talented as Xavier, but that defense will be tested. The Tigers will host Wofford in Mizzou Arena Monday night at 7 p.m.

Wofford lost not only head coach Mike Young but leading scorers Fletcher Magee and Cameron Jackson from a team that won the Southern Conference and earned a No. 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament last season. But the Terriers can still score. Wofford is averaging 78.8 points through four games this season and rank No. 58 in offensive efficiency. Its offense is characterized by three-point shooting and ball security. A season ago, Wofford averaged nearly 11 three-pointers per game, sixth-most in the country. So far this season, it has made 40 threes in four games.

“They can shoot the ball, they space you out, they drive it, they pitch it,” Martin said. “Any time you can have four guys on the floor that can really make shots, and then your five position — the one that probably doesn’t screen as much — can drive it, can screen it, can dive to the rim, and whenever you have good guards, you always have a chance to win.”

Wofford appears to have taken a bit of a step backwards from last season. The Terriers have lost by a point at home against William & Mary and by 19 at Butler in their last two games. But the team still features three players scoring 10 or more points per game. Point guard Dru Smith said the biggest key for Missouri will be communicating on defense.

“They do a lot of motion and screening off the ball,” Smith said. “They’re definitely going to test us. We’re going to have to make sure that we’re locked in and that we are paying attention to the scouting report and everything that the coaches are telling us."

While Missouri has played well on the defensive end through its first three games, the offensive end has been another story. The Tigers rank No. 235 nationally in effective field goal percentage.

The biggest issue has been outside shooting. Missouri shot 36.3 percent from three-point range as a team last season. While the sample size is admittedly small so far, the Tigers are shooting 25.3 percent so far this season. They made six of 25 attempts from deep against Xavier.

But Martin said he’s not worried about the shooting, at least from outside the arc. For one, he pointed out that the lengthening of the three-point line during the offseason has forced a bit of an adjustment. The NCAA adopted the international three-point line after last season, which moved the line from 20 feet, 9 inches to 22 feet, 1¾ inches.

“It’s a big difference,” Martin said. “But don’t get consumed with it.”

Martin believes his shooters’ percentages will increase as they adjust to the new line. One of those three-point specialists, sophomore Torrence Watson, echoed his confidence. Watson said the coaching staff has told players to keep shooting.

“I think it’s just early in the year,” Watson said. “The normal guys who make these shots aren’t going. ... I just think we need to keep shooting and they’re going to fall.”

Martin did, however, say Missouri needs to clean up its shooting around the rim. So far in this young season, the Tigers’ two-point shooting percentage is up from a year ago, but he said the coaching staff counted 13 missed layups against Xavier. Martin said he considers those misses turnovers and wants to see the number fall.

“I’m not talking about really congested, two or three guys trying to block the shot,” he said. “We thought there were 13 that we really had a chance to make and they didn’t go.”

Last week, Missouri’s lone commitment in the 2020 recruiting class, center Jordan Wilmore, signed his National Letter of Intent to play with the Tigers. As a result, Martin was able to publicly comment on Wilmore for the first time Sunday. He expressed excitement about the 7-foot-3 center’s size and potential.

“What I like is his potential,” Martin said. “He’s a big, physical guy. He’s tall, soft hands, good passer for his size. And I think really his growth is years ahead of him as he continues to get to college, as he understands, gets a good feel for the game.”

Martin believes Wilmore, who is currently playing for The Skill Factory prep school in Atlanta, will improve as he spends more time around players his size — or at least close to it — in college. His offensive skillset could use some development, but Martin envisions him impacting the game in ways other than scoring.

“Sometimes the guards are shooting a lot of balls, so now it’s a matter of how do you get rebounds, how do you get involved in games? And I always just go back to your defense and your rebounding. How is your ball screen defense? Are you blocking shots, protecting the rim? So if you get the ball offensively, you get it. If you don’t, you don’t. But I think he’ll be very helpful, just because of his size, his feel and his understanding.”