Here's what was on my mind right as the final buzzer sounded and Missouri completed its limp into the postseason with an 91-83 loss to Kentucky.
Let's start with the good part and get it knocked out
The interior defense looked significantly better.
It wasn't a points in the paint or foul problem today until pretty late, which is great. They still gave up too many free throws, but a pretty good chunk of them came in the final 5 minutes as Mizzou was trying to slow the game down.
There was some adjustment there at least effort-wise and it was pretty clear early on.
But ...
The outside defense
The added focus on the interior left a lot of room around the arc and against a team like Kentucky, that's just not going to be a winning strategy.
The Wildcats were able to take advantage of open space and late close outs to shoot 11-of-20 from 3, just a fantastic performance from beyond the arc, which powered what was a low-scoring game between two high-powered offenses.
The other reason the game was low scoring
Missouri's offense looked truly terrible for about the first 25-30 minutes.
Mark Mitchell played great once again, and we saw some flashes of aggression and solid play from Tony Perkins early and Jacob Crews. Marques Warrick played fantastic in the second half to keep the Tigers involved, but as a team, the Tigers never really got flowing.
Mitchell ended shooting 8-of-14 overall for 22 points, while also bringing down seven rebounds. He's one of the only Tigers with no fault in today's loss, he played great as he has through basically this entire final stretch of the season.
Warrick really took advantage of Kentucky letting off the defensive gas late as he piled up 16 points in just 14 minutes played.
But no one else did anything through most of the game.
That was the worst performance the Tiger offense has had in a while, and considering Kentucky's defense wasn't much to write home about coming into this game, I was surprised.
Limping in
The Tigers are headed to the postseason having lost four of their final five games, including just their second game at Mizzou Arena this season.
In the final three weeks, the Tigers went from controlling their own destiny for a double-bye in the SEC Tournament and staring an NCAA Tournament 3-seed in the face to falling all the way to a likely 8 seed in the SEC and maybe a 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The feel around the team was so high after the Alabama win and I'm not sure it can get much lower than it is right now.
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