After bringing in sharpshooter Jacob Crews, who shot more than 40 percent from beyond the arc in 32 games last season while averaging 19.1 points, the Missouri Tigers thought they had a splash brother to pair with Caleb Grill.
But the graduate guard struggled early on, with only one game with more than two shots made in the first nine matchups of his Tiger tenure.
“Some adjustments are single races,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “You gotta wait to figure out the race that one kid individually runs and see how long it takes for him to adjust.”
Then came a breakout, a 19-point performance against Jacksonville State in just 20 minutes played as he hit six attempts from deep.
But against better competition, it was right back to the struggles. A 1-of-5 performance against both Illinois and Alabama State, 0-of-2 in just 5 minutes against LSU and 0-of-2 in 4 minutes against Vanderbilt.
“I think the physicality part, … is the first thing I would say I noticed in my game,” Crews said of the adjustment necessary to play in the SEC. “I mean, obviously, coming from the OVC (Ohio Valley Conference), it’s a big difference. This is the most competitive league in college basketball. So, you know, everybody wants to be in here, so I think just adjusting to that.”
But in the past nine games of SEC play, Crews has started to hit his stride.
He was 2-of-6 both against Florida and Arkansas, contributing to two Tiger wins.
Then he was 2-of-5 against Ole Miss in another Missouri victory.
“At the end of the day, I practice every day with SEC players,” Crews said of what has helped his transition most. “So, the more minutes, I think, the more people will see that. … Just doing all the little things, pretty much. And as time keeps going, I think, everybody on our team is going to be doing the same thing.”
But the past five games have been his best run of the season yet.
He was 3-of-7 from deep, pouring in nine points in just 16 minutes to help the Tigers beat Mississippi State, then adding eight points with two made 3s against Tennessee before shooting 3-of-4 from deep with three consecutive made 3-pointers to drag the Tigers back from their early deficit against Texas A&M.
“Everybody on our team is a threat,” Crews said. “I mean, we’ve had, I don’t know how many different leading scorers this year. It’s crazy how many threats we have as scorers. There’s so many different lineups we can go to and I feel like in almost every lineup I’ve been in, I’ve always had a good look.”
He had only one opportunity in the Tigers' win against Oklahoma, but sank a walk-up 3 from far beyond the right wing to put him at 100 percent from the field. Then he added eight points and three rebounds, while shooting 2-of-3 against Georgia.
As he continues his adjustment to the league, Crews has gotten a chance to see a few of the most rowdy arenas in college basketball. But there’s one that has stood out above the rest.
“Being on the road here for the first time and really getting just to see how many different crowds there are, especially being sold out, there’s definitely nothing like Mizzou,” Crews said. “Mizzou Arena’s got it. I mean, that’s the toughest crowd to play in front of. Not for us, we love it, we get to laughing because it’s just like, it’s such an amazing experience. But like, anytime they get loud, the other teams freeze. I mean, they just, that’s hard to go up against, especially when we’re rolling. We’ve got the top crowd in the conference, in the country. It’s not even close.”
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