Here's what was on my mind right as the final buzzer sounded and Missouri claimed its 17th win and second on the road, beating Mississippi State 88-61.
My goodness Caleb Grill
The best 3-point shooter in the country was hot again, especially in the first half as he hit a couple of very open looks and a couple more with hands in his face, including one from about 40 feet away.
He's continued his torrid streak since returning from his neck injury and has been a major key to the Tigers' success as they are off to the best 21-game start in more than a decade.
Once again, we saw just an incredible night for Grill as he shot 7-of-12 from the field and 6-of-11 from deep to lead the Tigers to another win.
3-point shooting as a team
Which brings me to the 3-point shooting overall.
When Grill was out earlier in the year, the Tigers just weren't attempting that many shots from deep, but we're back to the version of the Tigers' offense that relies on attempts beyond the arc to succeed.
Which worked well for them, shooting 9-of-19 from deep in the first half with multiple makes from Grill and Jacob Crews. They ended 15-of-32 as a team with Grill leading the way for a season-high performance from deep for the team.
Josh Gray
Gray has been a little quiet the past couple of games, but he posted his first double-double in more than two years.
When he's on, he's a force and actually had some success scoring the ball in a way the Tigers hadn't seen from him at all this season. It was the first time he's reached double-digit points as a Tiger.
Another very impressive game from the graduate (who might have a feature coming at say, 10 a.m. tomorrow morning).
Chaos defense
The Tigers came into this matchup needing to be the team with better ball control facing a Mississippi State defense that, like Mizzou, is very good at creating turnovers.
The Tigers were getting hands in passing lanes all day, as were the Bulldogs, with the teams combining for 13 steals and 21 total turnovers. The Tigers had seven steals and 11 turnovers.
Just impressive once again
The Tigers have really struggled in Starkville most of the time Missouri has been in the SEC.
But this game just looked easy.
I'm struggling to think of ways teams can stop the Tiger offense when it's hitting shots. Obviously, there's games like Texas where they just aren't falling, and that's when the Tigers are beatable, but when they shoot the way they did today, I'm not sure there are many teams in the country that can keep up.
In a season that has already had some very impressive wins, because of the way this one played out, I think there's a new one at the top of the list.
That was a dominant performance against a very good team on their home court where the Tigers have really struggled.
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