A couple weeks ago, after Missouri lost two games in as many days at the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, sophomore Javon Pickett approached head coach Cuonzo Martin. Pickett told Martin something was wrong; he didn’t feel right. Pickett had totaled just five points and four rebounds in 46 minutes across the two losses. Combine those performances with a scoreless outing in a loss at Xavier on Nov. 12, and Pickett had struggled in all of the Tigers’ biggest games of the season to that point.
Martin’s assessment: Pickett needed to loosen up. In order to help him do so, Martin removed Pickett, who started 37 of the first 38 games of his Missouri career, from the starting lineup.
“Offensively, just didn’t feel like himself, and I did it before in my career with another guy, just said, ‘man, this might be the best thing for you,’” Martin said. “Not that you lost the starting position, like you were playing bad, but let’s try to ease up a little bit to try to get some fun out of this thing. And I think the last two games, he’s shown that.”
Pickett showed signs of awakening from his offensive slump against Charleston Southern. He scored nine points to go along with six rebounds and two assists, but he also made a critical error late when he failed to close out on an open three-point shooter off an inbounds pass in the closing minutes. Missouri lost the game 68-60. Martin brought the play up after the game, and even 10 days later called it inexcusable.
The next time out, Pickett made sure to atone for the mistake. Coming off the bench, Pickett led all Tigers with 16 points and added five rebounds in the team’s 64-54 win over Temple on Saturday. Center Jeremiah Tilmon said Pickett provided an important spark and helped the Tigers overcome their recent trend of slow starts.
“That’s just him,” Tilmon said. “He’s always just bringing the energy, and he always goes hard, so you know you can always expect that from him, regardless of the situation. Like if we’re losing or not, he’s still going to go hard, dive on the floor and all that stuff. Be an Energizer bunny.”
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Pickett found a regular role as an energy boost off the bench. Friday, he said that would be fine with him.
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” Pickett said. “Just whatever way I can help the team out, help us win, i’m fine with that.”
Temple win provides needed confidence boost
Martin hasn’t attempted to downplay Missouri’s loss to Charleston Southern, which currently sits at No. 290 in the KenPom ratings. After the game, he said the memory would probably stick with him forever. Friday, he said “you’d like to think a game like Charleston (Southern) is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
But as painful as the loss was, Martin said he was pleased with his team for showing the resolve to bounce back by upsetting Temple on the road.
“I think it shows a level of character for young guys to drop three and a row and to be able to fight and to understand that we have to get this win against a tough, physical team in their home environment,” he said.
Martin also said that the win proved to the team that it is capable of beating anyone on its schedule if it plays well. Players voiced a similar sentiment, saying the road victory provided a needed boost of confidence.
“We needed that to get our head back up,” said Tilmon. “I feel like we was walking around feeling down on ourselves just a little bit, but once we beat Temple, we knew that we could play against anybody.”
“Especially after the Charleston Southern loss, I think guys really had to sit back and reflect where the direction of the team was going,” added junior Mitchell Smith. “We went to Temple with a mindset to win, and then once we got the win, guys know, like, we’re good. We can play with any team out there.”
Three-point defense the difference
One of the biggest factors in Missouri’s loss to Charleston Southern was the fact that the Buccaneers, who entered the game ranking second-to-last nationally in three-point percentage, made eight of 11 shots from behind the arc in the second half.
“They made shots,” Martin said Friday. “We broke down. I will say, the two under, out of bounds three-point shots that they made were uncharacteristic of our team. There’s absolutely no excuse for that. That’s six points that shouldn’t happen.”
The Tigers responded by clamping down against Temple. The Owls made just two of 21 threes in the game and missed their final six attempts from outside. Temple scored just five points in the final six minutes.
Martin said he didn’t necessarily challenge Missouri to be better at defending the three-point line, but his players knew that was an area they needed to improve. Pickett said the team didn’t change anything schematically; defending the three-point line was simply a matter of “effort and closing out.”
“I feel like every game you win starts with defense,” said sophomore Xavier Pinson. “… So I feel like we all just stuck our feet in the sand and said, hey, we gotta lock up as a team, we gotta talk to each other, do whatever we can to get this win, and it showed.”
As is always the case for a Martin-coached team, when Missouri has won this season, it has been because of its defense. The Tigers have been solid defensively for much of the season, ranking 29th nationally in defensive efficiency, but Martin is looking for better. He hopes the victory over Temple will serve as proof of how far playing elite defense can take them.
“Defensively, I think you have good numbers, but you have the ability to have great numbers,” he said. “Just the mental approach, down the stretch against Temple you showed what you can do.”
Up next
Missouri will return home to face Southern Illinois on Sunday. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. The Salukis rank No. 216 according to KenPom and have a 4-6 record. They have not played a high-major opponent yet this season.
While Missouri should enter the game as a heavy favorite, there will be one storyline of interest. Guard Ronnie Suggs, who spent the past two seasons as a walk-on at Missouri, graduated and transferred to Southern Illinois following last season. Suggs is currently averaging 5.5 points and 3.3 rebounds in 25.5 minutes per game.
Martin joked Friday that he tried to get Suggs to give up SIU’s game plan, but Suggs refused.
“I called Ronnie,” Martin said with a smile, “he didn’t give me any insight.”
