At full strength, Missouri might not be good enough to beat Alabama. Dennis Gates called the Crimson Tide the best team in the country multiple times leading up to Saturday’s game and nothing the Mizzou coach saw in a 85-64 loss should change his mind about that.
But the Tigers weren’t at full strength. On a bad day for ankles in the state of Missouri, Kobe Brown’s didn’t feel strong enough for the Tigers to play him.
So the wait for Gates to actually have every player on his roster at his disposal continues. It hasn’t happened yet this season other than buy games against SIU-Edwardsville and Houston Christian and a game at UCF (the only three times Isaiah Mosley and Mo Diarra had both seen the floor prior to this week and even then, both were in significantly reduced roles). But it’s coming. And there’s reason for optimism when it does.
That reason came mostly in the form of Mosley on Saturday afternoon. The Missouri State transfer, playing for just the second time after a month-long layoff for personal reasons, scored a team-high 19 points. He added four rebounds, two blocked shots and an assist in a season-high 23 minutes.
Gates actually said after the game he probably leaned on Mosley a little too much.
“He didn’t have his legs underneath him to be able to execute the jump shots that we have normally seen him take,” Gates said. “There’s a level of conditioning that it takes.”
“A guy like that to be able to play off the bounce, play off the dribble, that’s a weapon. For this team to have responded to him the way, it’s a tremendous quality to have.”
Mosley showed off what probably is not a full arsenal, but at least enough to give Missouri fans optimism that there’s more there. He’s still just 1/12 from three-point range since his return. He shot 50% from the floor and 40% from three-point range at Missouri State last year. He’s a better shooter than this. It’s going to fall at some point. But even when it isn’t, he can bring the ball up the floor, he’s made a few defenders look silly trying to stay in front of him and Gates has called him perhaps the team’s best passer multiple times this season.
“We knew him even before he got here,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “He’s an aggressive scorer and the system’s perfect for him. The floor is spaced, he’s a guy who can shoot it, go off the the dribble. I think the more reps he gets…”
“Isaiah knows how to score the ball,” senior point guard Nick Honor said. “He knows how to get a bucket and you can see him getting more comfortable each and every day.”
Throw in 12 rebounds from Mo Diarra, some valuable court time in his first start for freshman Aidan Shaw and the return of Noah Carter and Gates has a roster that presents him with multiple options once Brown gets back and it’s at full strength.
Saturday wasn’t great. The Tide is better than Missouri to begin with. Take away the Tigers’ best player and the gap is significantly wider.
But Missouri doesn’t play Alabama again. Outside of road trips to Tennessee and Auburn, the second half of the schedule is lighter than the first. And eventually, everybody’s going to be able to play. Sitting Brown on Saturday was about making sure you have him at full strength when it really matters. You were playing the league’s—if not the country’s—best team. Why put Brown at risk in a game you were going to have to be almost perfect to win even with him?
If sitting Brown on Saturday in a game you already had a pretty good chance to lose even with him gets him back in the lineup at Ole Miss on Tuesday and at home against Iowa State next Saturday, it was unquestionably the right decision.
Gates has his eye on the long-term future, not the immediate present. And there’s reason to feel pretty good about it, even after Saturday’s loss.
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