Every time I go back to the box score to pull a stat from Missouri’s game against Jackson State, I am more and more puzzled about how the black and gold lost. Mizzou shot the ball better on both 2s and 3s. It had the rebounding advantage. It trailed at the free throw line, but not by a wide margin. The team was up six with 1:17 on the clock. The result really just came down to MU’s 18 turnovers and the 26 points JSU scored off of them.
It was by all means a game that the Tigers should’ve won. It’s going to be a loss that looms over the rest of this year and, really, one that’s going to stick with Dennis Gates throughout the rest of his coaching career — it’ll stand out like a bad tattoo that states “No Regerts.”
It’s also a game that felt a little fluky, for all of the reasons listed above. A lot of games have felt that way this year. You could say Mizzou should’ve beaten Jackson State just as easily as you could say it should’ve lost to Minnesota. It’s been difficult to get a good read on what this team is and what it can be because of how inconsistent it’s been.
Tuesday’s win over Pittsburgh didn’t feel fluky, though. It seemed real. You could say that the Tigers aren’t going to outrebound one of the top teams on the boards every night, but they’ve come out with the edge on the glass on five occasions this season. Missouri played with focus. The players didn’t get flustered despite a large disparity in foul calls. They made solid percentages from the field, forced turnovers and showed the poise of a team that was in the NCAA tournament last year.
If the JSU game was a destabilizing loss, the Pitt game was a recalibrating win. I predicted Mizzou to go 11-2 in non-conference play, which probably isn’t realistic at this point. But being 10-3 should keep them in the running for March Madness. Going 9-4 is survivable, too, but the Tigers would need to do well in SEC play.
I wrote about what’s not working for Missouri in last week’s column, so it makes sense to do the opposite this week after the team’s most important win of the year. Here are three things that are working well for the Tigers so far:
Anthony Robinson II and Jordan Butler, the dynamic freshman duo
During the game against the Panthers, I sent @GabeD a text that just said “Ant is a dude.” Gabe responded with “Just sent the exact same text to a friend.” I don’t remember what specific play caused me to send it. It honestly could’ve been any point that Robinson was on the floor. That’s how good he’s been.
Robinson continuously looks like he belongs on the court. The Tallahassee, Fla. native uses his quick feet and high basketball IQ to put himself in the right spots at the right times. He leads the team in steals despite only playing the seventh-most minutes. He hasn’t knocked down his 3-point shot consistently yet, but gets to the rim often and finishes at a high clip, making 64.7% of his 2-pointers. He’s got a 17-to-6 assist-to-turnover ratio on the year, accounting for a sky-high 23.7% of the Tigers’ dimes when he’s on the floor.
The former four-star recruit has been a better backcourt mate for Nick Honor and Sean East II than the graduate seniors have been for each other.
Gates has had high praise for the rookie guard, too.
“The only consistent that I see right now happening is Ant Robinson being able to cement himself as a guy that may be impacting the game, first off the bench, second off the bench,” the head coach said after the team’s win over Loyola (Md.). “Ant Robinson is playing with an abundant amount of confidence.
“He's a tremendous player and he's going to continue to get better … So I credit Ant Robinson for just being, you know, available every day in practice. He's getting better because of how he practices.”
Butler’s looked sharp in his limited chances as well, especially on the defensive end. According to CBB Analytics, opponents have had an effective field goal percentage of 42.8% during the 64 minutes Butler was on the floor.
It would’ve been a stretch to think that either freshman would’ve been a major contributor before the season started. But both have earned their place in the rotation early in the year.
Noah Carter at the 4
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