Inside Xavier Pinson's scoring spree
As of two weeks ago, Missouri guard Xavier Pinson had scored 20 points in a game just once in his college career. Now that he has averaged 23.3 points in the past four games and eclipsed his career high three times in that span, capped by a 32-point performance in Missouri’s 71-68 win over Ole Miss on Tuesday, it seems fair to call the sophomore’s scoring spree a surprise.
Pinson’s numbers the past few games haven’t just been good, they’ve been historic. His 32 points Tuesday were the most by a Missouri player since 2014, when Jabari Brown scored 33 against Kentucky. Add that to his 28 points in the Tigers’ upset of No. 11 Auburn and Pinson became the first Missouri player since Thomas Gardner way back in January of 2006 to score 60 across two games. Prior to Pinson, only three Missouri players had accomplished that feat since 2000.
But while Pinson’s past four performances may seem to have come out of nowhere, those who have spent time around the Chicago native don’t seem surprised. Brian Houston, who coached Pinson when he played for the Mac Irvin Fire AAU team and who watches all of Pinson’s games, told PowerMizzou back in November that, by the end of the season, Pinson would work his way into the starting lineup and Missouri wouldn’t be able to take him off the floor. Fellow guard Dru Smith, who has been on a scoring tear of his own the past few games, said he knew Pinson had this in him; he’s seen it in practice.
“I think it’s just honestly a product of the work he’s put in,” Smith said of Pinson. “We’ve known X is a great player, and it’s not like he was playing bad before. He’s just stepped it up to a new level that guys haven’t seen before.”
Still, the question remains, what changed for Pinson to translate his potential Into production? Houston believes the biggest factor has been confidence — both belief in himself, and assurance that he has a longer leash from the coaching staff with Missouri missing both Mark Smith and Jeremiah Tilmon due to injury.
“He’s just playing freely,” Houston said Wednesday. “I look at him now, it’s almost like he’s playing high school again, like he’s lost in the game.”
Asked Tuesday whether Pinson enjoys his current streak if Mark Smith were still in the lineup, Cuonzo Martin said “probably not.” Mark Smith exited the lineup in the first half of the Tigers’ win over Georgia on Jan. 28 with a lower back injury. Pinson scored all 16 of his points that game in the final 20 minutes and has started each of the six games since. Beginning with the second half against Georgia, he has played 69.1 percent of Missouri’s minutes. In the first 19 games of the season, he played 53.4 percent.
Pinson has responded to the increase in playing time with a boost in productivity, even on a per-minute basis. His field goal percentage has jumped from 34.4 during the first 19 games of the season to 49.4 in the last seven (and 76.0 in the last two). The difference in his three-point shooting is even greater, from 19.1 percent prior to Mark Smith’s injury to 51.7 percent since. Despite playing more, his turnovers have slightly decreased.
Houston wanted to make it clear that he doesn’t blame the Missouri staff for not giving Pinson this much playing time sooner. But he said Pinson has always been a “rhythm player,” and he’s benefitted from the knowledge that one mistake won’t send him to the bench.
“The fact that he’s being out there and able to play through his mistakes is huge,” Houston said. “He’s not the type of kid that’s going to keep making mistakes. He’s going to make a conscious effort to correct them.”
The aspect of Pinson’s game that has benefited most from his increased confidence — and the one thing Houston admitted he’s been surprised by — has been his three-point shot. Pinson, who shot 40 percent from three-point range as a freshman, started this season in a brutal slump, at one point missing 17 straight attempts from beyond the arc. But over the past several games, Pinson has rediscovered his shot. He made two of three three-pointers against Auburn and all four of his attempts against Ole Miss. Houston, who said Pinson makes 300 three-point jumpers a day, said if Pinson can continue to hit three-pointers both off the dribble and as a spot-up shooter like he has the last two games, he will be “scary.”
“College coaches, they teach their players to close out on kids, and Pinson is so quick off the dribble and off the bounce, and he already sees the next pass after you close out on him,” he said. “If you want to close out on him and take away his three-point shot, he already knows where the next pass is going to be. He already knows that the lob is going to be to (Reed) Nikko, or is going to swing to Dru or to Mark or whoever is in there already.”
Even though Pinson has been shooting better, he hasn’t started settling for jumpers, and that’s been key. He and Dru Smith have sparked Missouri's offense by attacking the basket as often as possible over the past four games. Pinson has shot 34 free throws — 8.5 per game — during that span. Nearly a third of his points across the past four games have come from the free throw line.
Just as those who have spent time around Pinson haven’t seemed surprised by his offensive explosion, Pinson himself seems to have taken it all in stride. After each of the last two games, he maintained his calm, almost sleepy demeanor, as if both games were just another night at Mizzou Arena.
Houston said Pinson expects these kind of games from himself. More than anything else, that might have been the biggest contributing factor to his recent run. Once Mark Smith left the lineup, Pinson knew Missouri needed someone to pick up the scoring slack, and he took it upon himself to lead the charge.
“I feel like we’ve got a lot of guys out, so Dru and I have to step up big time to make up for those guys who are out, because we’re playing extra minutes,” Pinson said Tuesday. “Just taking the challenge and owning it.”
Houston believes Pinson can take that mindset even further, becoming the go-to scorer Missouri has lacked over the past two seasons. He said Pinson still has plenty of room for improvement, especially if he can add some heft to his wiry frame, and he looks forward to even more people seeing the potential he has raved about since Pinson’s AAU days.
“He’s been that guy — and I’m not taking anything away from anyone else on that team,” Houston said. “What they’re lacking is a guy that can, off the bounce, make a pass or make a bucket, and Pinson is that. He’s that dude.”