Here’s a look at some numbers and thoughts that didn’t get into the initial thoughts after last night’s game against Arkansas.
Mark Mitchell
He didn’t play as incredible as his career-high setting performances against Oklahoma or Alabama, but Mark Mitchell produced a team-high 17 points and a game-high seven rebounds to go with three assists.
He also had six of the Tigers’ 18 turnovers, so not all good.
It was the fourth consecutive game that Mitchell has outscored his season average (now 13.7), while his seven rebounds made the performance the third time this season that Mitchell has led the Tigers in both points and rebounds.
Turnovers
Missouri had 18 turnovers, a high through the SEC schedule.
And those extra opportunities led to 30 Arkansas points.
The Tigers had been very good at holding onto the ball recently, they committed only three turnovers against Tennessee, 14 against Texas A&M, 12 against Oklahoma, three against Georgia and eight against Alabama.
The Tigers hadn’t surpassed 15 in a game since the home win against Ole Miss.
But they were a major issue Saturday night, led by Mitchell with six and Tony Perkins with four.
Dennis Gates’ favorite stat to hit on in press conference’s in assist to turnover ratio, and the Tigers had a negative one for the first time since Oklahoma (11 assists to 12 turnovers that game), and the first with more than a one-turnover difference since Texas A&M.
“We had a lot of turnovers to begin the game,” Gates said. “They obviously did a great job. We had five turnovers on the first nine possessions and they built a 10-4 lead. You can’t win on the road like that and we’ve got to do a better job.”
3-point shooting
The Tigers attempted 36 shots from beyond the arc Saturday, a season high. And they made 12 (33.33 percent) which is not terribly far behind their season average (36.9 percent), but Caleb Grill was certainly behind his average at just 2-of-12 (16.67 percent), which dropped him to 43.3 percent for the year as he attempts to reach 50 percent shooting from deep.
He was at 49-of-100 for the season recently, but since then is just 12-of-41 (29.26 percent) as teams have changed how they guard him.
He would have to hit his next 19 attempts consecutively to get to 50 percent for the year.
Defense
Going into Saturday, the Tigers were 15-1 this season when scoring 80 points because Missouri had allowed more than 80 just seven times this season.
After allowing 83 to Memphis, Missouri didn’t allow 80 again until Cal when both teams reached 90. For the most part, when Missouri scores 80 points, its defense responds and holds the opponent to less than 80, there’s only been five Missouri games this season (including Saturday) where both teams scored 80 or more points.
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