Throughout much of the early season, Cuonzo Martin has talked about wanting to see Kobe Brown be more aggressive and look for his shot. On Sunday night, Martin got his wish and it came just in time for the Tigers.
On the strength of an 18-0 run to close out the first half, SMU seemed to have Missouri on lockdown in the semifinals of the Jacksonville Classic. But then Brown started hunting--and hitting--his shot.
The Missouri junior scored 14 of his career-high points in the second half as Missouri climbed back from a deficit that reached 13 points and still stood at seven with 4:23 to play.
"I just tried to help my team," Brown said. "I wasn’t really just trying to put up shots or anything. My teammate did a good job getting me the ball and putting me in the right spots so it just kind of happened."
While it was Brown that kept Missouri somewhat in it, he was on the bench for the beginning of the Tigers' final push. Brown picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench with 5:53 to play. Emmanuel Bandoumel made both free throws to put the Mustangs up 53-44 at that point. Ronnie DeGray had an old-fashioned three-point play and then a three-point jumper to get Mizzou within five at the final media timeout when Brown re-entered with 3:35 to play.
But then, another of Missouri's imports took over. DaJuan Gordon scored eight of the Tigers' next ten (Brown had the other two) as they clawed back to tie the game at 62 with 30 seconds to play. DeGray drew a charge in the final second and Missouri got the game to overtime on the strength of a 12-5 run in the last four-and-a-half minutes.
"I think the first two games I thought he was pressing from the standpoint of excited wanting to play well," Martin said of Gordon. "When he got a couple to go tonight he settled in and played the game…When he was aggressive offensively it opened it up for us because he’s a guy that can make plays."
In the extra period, DeGray scored seven points, including two free throws that gave Mizzou it's first lead since it was 18-17 with 3:45 to go in the first half. Brown scored five and Amari Davis went 5-for-5 from the free throw line as Missouri pulled out a victory that looked virtually impossible as the Tigers struggled to find their offense for the first 30 minutes. But in that struggle, Martin may have found a pair of players capable of taking over a game on that end in Brown and Gordon.
Missouri dug itself a huge hole against the Mustangs, but left just enough to be able to dig itself out. Martin said he was exhausted at halftime, but explained to his team how it was going to come back.
"You can see eyes, you can see the glaze in some guys’ eyes. I don’t see that with these guys," Martin said. "All we need is one possession at a time."
FIVE THINGS WE THINK
1. Missouri's offensive pecking order is established. Brown is the alpha here. DeGray and Gordon have emerged as the most reliable other options. That won't always be the case, but for now those are the three players that Missouri needs to run things through. That trio combined for 56 points and made 19 of the Tigers' 26 field goals.
2. It looks like you might continue to put up with some long droughts. One of the most common issues Martin's teams have had at Missouri is going long stretches without scoring. It happened again on Sunday as Mizzou didn't have a point in the final 7:19 of the first half. They were somehow able to survive it, but it's not a reliable strategy.
3. The one thing it appears you can count on is effort. Despite there appearing to be many reasons to do so--and many observers who most certainly did--Mizzou never mailed it in on Sunday. The Tigers needed every bit of grit and fight they had (something Martin said he thought they lacked in the UMKC loss) to come back from the hole they dug themselves. We don't want to go over the top handing out atta-boys for effort because that's the minimum that's expected. But plenty of teams would have gone through the motions in the final ten minutes and Missouri didn't appear to do so.
4. This team's going to have to find a way to get something out of the big men. Clearly the Tigers aren't going to get a lot of points out of post-up play or anything, but they've got to be able to get something. Jordan Wilmore played 15 minutes and while he deserves some recognition for six rebounds and some solid defense, he also went 0-for-6 from the floor and missed his only free throw. Yaya Keita played six minutes and made the only shot he took...but it was a three-pointer. Jeremiah Tilmon is gone and Missouri isn't going to run its offense through the big men, but it would be nice to get a bucket down low now and again.
5. The trip to Jacksonville is already a success. Obviously you'd like to go ahead and beat Florida State on Monday to claim the coveted title of First Annual Jacksonville Classic Champion, but this was going to be a successful trip if Missouri managed to win one of the two games. It did. The Tigers are 3-1 and if they can give the Seminoles a decent game on Monday they should come home with some things to fell good about. There are plenty of concerns, but there were also enough positive in the final ten minutes on Sunday to offer a bit of hope.
Star of the Game: Kobe Brown was the best player, but Missouri doesn't win the game without Gordon's heroics in the final five minutes of regulation. He hadn't done much of anything to that point, but stepped up and took charge offensively when Missouri needed it. In the early going, he's shown signs of being the best of the Tigers' transfers.
Room for Improvement: How about not having to dig out of a first half that just keeps getting worse? The Tigers had 23 points in the first half against UMKC, then 24 against Northern Illinois and bottomed out (hopefully) with just 18 in the first 20 minutes against the Mustangs. Mizzou has managed to overcome two of those three performances, but there wouldn't be anything wrong with making a few shots before the second half starts.
What it means: It means that Missouri is capable of winning games and shouldn't just take a single-digit win season. The angst after a loss to UMKC and for much of the Northern Illinois and SMU games is understandable, but this team has found a way to win three of the four games it has played. It will come home from Jacksonville above .500 as it takes a few days off to get ready for Wichita State on Friday night.
Next up: Missouri faces Florida State in the championship game at approximately 7:30 Central time on Monday night. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
Quotable: “Definitely a relief. Now that we know we can fight and come back against a team like that we can fight against anyone" -- Kobe Brown
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