On January 30th, 2008, Missouri lost at home, 66-62 to Nebraska. That game left the Tigers 13-9. They would lose seven of their remaining ten to finish 16-16 overall without a postseason destination. There was little that would indicate it was a game anyone should remember.
But second year coach Mike Anderson would later say otherwise. He had kicked leading scorer Stefhon Hannah off the team the day before following an incident at a Columbia night club. Jason Horton, Darryl Butterfield, Leo Lyons and Marshall Brown all served short suspensions. It left Anderson with six scholarship players and walk-on Michael Anderson Jr.
The Tigers battled that night as DeMarre Carroll, Vaidotas Volkus, Matt Lawrence and J.T. Tiller all scored in double figures. But Anderson’s undermanned team couldn’t overcome Aleks Maric and the Huskers.
"We just came up short,” Carroll said after that game. “But we played our hearts out.”
So why, you are likely wondering, are you reading about a random game in a mediocre season that coached by a guy who now coaches against Missouri twice a year that most people have probably forgotten?
Anderson would often point to that game as the night he found out which players he could take to battle. The Tigers would win a school-record 31 games and advance to the Elite Eight the following season with Carroll leading the way and Lawrence, Lyons and Tiller joining him in the starting five.
You never know when the spark that starts a fire will occur. Sometimes the best news comes out of the darkest times. Out of the ashes of the Quin Snyder era and the disaster of legal problems galore, Mike Anderson made the Missouri program his on that Wednesday night.
On Tuesday night, just more than 11 years later, in another non-nondescript loss, another mediocre Missouri team felt like it might have experienced its line in the sand moment.
The Tigers trailed Kentucky 41-23 at halftime. This wasn’t surprising. Kentucky is a top-five team and a bona fide national title contender. Missouri would fall below .500 on the season and to 3-10 in SEC play by the end of this game. A good team was beating a team that isn’t all that good and few outside of Columbia or Lexington would probably take notice.
But Cuonzo Martin saw something in that first half. And it wasn’t something he liked.
“We didn’t fight at all in the first half,” Martin said after the game. “We didn’t play hard.”
“He called us out,” Ronnie Suggs said. “He said that this is the first time he could remember that we didn’t play hard coming out of the gates. He just wants effort. We do effort, that’s all that matters. But he said we weren’t playing hard.”
“At halftime, he was like y’all soft, y’all quitting. He said I could name every name that I could think of right now,” Jeremiah Tilmon said. “He challenged us for sure. And I mean I can take a challenge. I’m not trying to act all whiny and stuff like that.”
Largely, Missouri did respond to the challenge. The Tigers outscored Kentucky by 10 points in the second half and out rebounded them 19-8, including 12-0 on the offensive end. After scoring 18 points in the paint in the first half, Kentucky had just four in the second half. P.J. Washington had 15 points and five rebounds at halftime, but just three points and three boards after the break.
Martin went small in the second half, using four guards much of the time. He handed the defensive assignment on the 6-foot-7 Washington mostly to guards Pickett and Suggs.
“I thought the way he looked in that first half, I thought it would be a long night,” Martin said. “But credit to Javon and Ronnie…They embraced that challenge.”
Martin kept going back to that concept after the game. He said he could tell before the game started that some of his players weren’t ready to go. He didn’t say it, but he seemed to intimate the Tigers may have been a bit intimidated by one of college basketball’s best teams.
“Man,” Martin said when asked why the Tigers lacked effort in the first half. “Did you watch it? You gotta embrace challenges. I look in some guys eyes, I’ll just put it like that. Your eyes can tell me if you’re ready to play. I see the same things in Ronnie and Javon’s eyes all the time.”
Coaches tend to recruit players who embody their own attitudes. Jordan Geist played much more in Martin’s first year than many anticipated and now is drawing praise from coaches across the SEC. Pickett has been in the starting five since game one of his first season. Suggs started the season as a walk-on and just led the Tigers in scoring against one of the country’s two most talented teams.
“I try to go with guys (that) give the best chance possible,” Martin said. “I know how it is, when you're an older guy, been in the program, give you every opportunity but at some point you gotta do what’s best for the program. They battle. That’s all I ask from those guys. Javon’s tough as they come. Ronnie’s the same way.”
The message was clear: Play hard, sell out on defense and you’ll play. Don’t? You’re not gonna last long under Martin.
“Cuonzo and I before the game, he said ‘Boy your team plays hard,’” Kentucky’s John Calipari said. “I said ‘I’ve already told my team how hard your guys play.’ He said ‘Yeah, we’re not gonna give you one you know that.’ And we both laughed because I knew it was going to be a war.”
The Tigers’ second-year coach was asked if the fight his team showed indicated his players were still buying in to his message despite a 12-and-13 record.
"I don't know why they wouldn’t,” he said. “It's what you do. You're on scholarship. You're part of a program. It's what you're supposed to do or you've got to find a new program. I've never been one to kind of judge or gauge whether or not they're buying in. If you're not buying in, you got to relocate. I don't understand that. I really don't. This is what you're supposed to do. Give everything you've got. I mean you're on scholarship, somebody's paying for your school, it's the least you can do is play hard.”
Tuesday night seemed like a dividing line for this program. Martin has been on the job for nearly two calendar years. He’s nearing the end of his second full season. But on Tuesday night, it seemed clear: Going forward, this is his program. It has clear directives and an identity. Those who fit that identity will be the core going forward.
“He wasn’t yelling or anything. He was just telling us straight how it is. We weren’t playing hard,” Suggs said. “Coach knows what gets us going. We don’t want anything sugar coated. If we’re not playing well, we want him to let us know.”
The message has been sent. Now we find out who received it.
