Here's what was on my mind as the final buzzer sounded and Missouri finished running past South Carolina 101-71.
Lesson learned
I think the Tigers took their mistakes against Arkansas to heart.
Right from the start, Missouri looked focused, organized and efficient. After a couple of sticky possessions from the South Carolina defense, the Tigers were operating well from outside and inside, they were playing incredibly fast whether following a turnover or a made Gamecock basket and the ball was moving all around.
Just a fantastic offensive performance to follow up a game with some lackadaisical play against the Razorbacks.
That looked like a performance to show the Tigers learned their lesson and got right.
Caleb Grill
It feels like every game I'm using space in initial thoughts to talk about Caleb Grill, Mark Mitchell or both.
Well tonight, it's Grill.
He started the game 4-for-4, got to 10 points in four minutes played and was all over the floor.
He ended up with 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting overall and 4-of-6 shooting from deep to go with five rebounds, four steals and two assists.
Whether making opportunities from deep, cutting around defenders to taking fantastic passes from Josh Gray (which, my goodness what a pass from the big man. I think that's up there with one of the better assists I've seen from someone who isn't a great passer), to playing sticky, fantastic defense.
Grill was great again, like the team as a whole, he learned his lesson from Arkansas as well. And as Dennis Gates said in the press conference leading up to Tuesday's game, Grill is going to keep shooting.
Interior defense
It didn't really make a difference because nothing else was really working well for South Carolina, but the Tigers' interior defense was a major issue once again.
It has been pretty clear since the Georgia game that the Tigers just don't have the rim protection to battle against talented big men.
Collin Murray-Boyles ended up shooting 10-of-11 for 27 points. The rest of the Gamecocks shot 14-of-44.
Even Jordan Butler made his first shot from inside the 3-point line this season in the second half.
Like I said, tonight it wasn't a major issue, but it will be come tournament time if Missouri lines up against a great big man who is able to take advantage enough to power his team.
Turnovers
The Tigers did a great job getting back to good ball control after a rough game against Arkansas.
Missouri went more than 20 minutes of game time between its third and fourth turnovers tonight and had only seven, while forcing 15 and having 21 assists on 40 made baskets.
South Carolina's defense definitely had a lot of issues, but the Tigers took advantage of a get-right game to get back to what it was doing so well at before Saturday's game.
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