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Here’s a chance for some extra thoughts and numbers that couldn’t make it into the initial thoughts or game story last night after the Missouri Tigers’ loss to Florida.

I mentioned this trio in the initial thoughts, but I wanted to dive in a little more.

NCAA Tournaments often have a theme of what wins that year. Last year it was big men with Zach Edey of Purdue, DJ Burns of NC State and Donovan Clingam of UConn all leading their teams to the Final Four with dominant post play.

But more often than not, guards are the standouts leading their teams to big postseason runs.

And the Tigers have three who are really able to take control at times.

I went into the SEC Tournament questioning if Tamar Bates could get back to his production from early in the SEC schedule, when he was aggressive and driving the paint and using that threat to open himself up from 3 all at the same time.

And whether Tony Perkins would step up to play that downhill style of his in key moments.

And whether Ant Robinson could actually stay out of foul trouble when it mattered to the point of being able to impact the game.

We saw the answers for all of those questions against Florida, and it was the second time in a row for Bates and Perkins.

I was encouraged by what came out of that trio yesterday, not to mention a solid performance in limited minutes from T.O. Barrett. If the guards play like that in the tournament, the Tigers should be set up for at least a couple of wins.

The Tigers hit just four 3s against Florida, which matched a season-low against an SEC opponent. The only games they had fewer were three-make games against Howard (3-of-22), California (3-of-9) and Illinois (3-of-13).

The Tigers kept up their string of 80-point performances without them (the stretch is now up to 10-consecutive 80-point games which marks the fourth-longest streak in school history) which was good to see, especially with 48 points in the paint.

The Tiger offense can work with or without 3-pointers falling, but it certainly feels better to watch when the 3s are going in.

I think a big part of that will be Caleb Grill getting back on track against teams that don’t have the quality of one-on-one defenders he’s had to match up with the past couple of months, but even if he continues to struggle, the Tiger offense can still put up points without him.

But that brings us back to a discussion about the defense.

Missouri gave up 48 points in the paint, matching the Tigers’ total, but I honestly don’t think the defense played all that poorly even with Florida ending up at 95 points.

The Tigers did better in foul disparity, taking 28 free throws to Florida’s 23 and committing 19 total fouls in the game to Florida’s 21.

So that was a plus.

I think the struggle mostly came from having to change matchups without Mark Mitchell who missed his first game of the season. That left Josh Gray extending into some extra situations, which led to him fouling out early.

And then the Tiger defense just couldn’t hold up late without a big man in the game to stop Florida’s trio of big bodies at the end of the game.

Considering how well the Tiger defense played against Mississippi State on Thursday, I think this is another area where I’m more confident in the Tigers than I was a week ago.

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