By the final minutes of the second half, everyone in Mizzou Arena knew the offensive game plan for No. 6 Illinois: Give the ball to Ayo Dosunmu and let him drive to the hoop. Illinois’ preseason first-team All-American had been virtually unstoppable Saturday night, scoring 36 points, 21 of them coming in the second half.
Missouri senior guard Dru Smith had spent most of the night matched up on Dosunmu. For the most part, it hadn’t gone well. In a timeout late in the game, he approached head coach Cuonzo Martin about a change — not putting someone else on Dosunmu in Missouri’s man defense, but letting him pick up Dosunmu closer to half court so that he was less vulnerable to ball screens and the Tigers were less likely to switch.
The alteration worked. With less than 90 seconds remaining and Missouri leading by two, Smith poked the ball away from Dosunmu for his second steal of the game. The Tigers couldn’t capitalize, with Smith getting whistled for a travel on the other end. Illinois, of course, went right back to Dosunmu. This time, Smith, who had already been whistled for three fouls, absorbed contact and fell to the floor. The official signaled charge. On the ensuing possession, Xavier Pinson spun into the lane and knocked down a tough jumper to give Missouri a four-point lead with less than a minute on the clock.
Dru Smith would force one final errant shot from Dosunmu, a deep three with two seconds left, and the shot missed. The Tigers held on for an 81-78 victory, improving their record to 5-0 and retaining braggin’ rights for the third year in a row.
“I think I was getting stuck on those ball screens there in the second half,” Smith said. “I was having my heels on the three point line and I was just getting hit, so I asked coach if I could pick him up a little higher, just to give me a better chance of getting through some of those, and I was able to do that towards the end and we were able to get a few big shots there down the stretch.”
Smith was one of several players that took turns coming up clutch with two of Missouri’s most important players riding the bench due to foul trouble. Missouri got just three points and two rebounds from center Jeremiah Tilmon and five points from leading scorer Mark Smith. Both players fouled out of the game, combining to play just 40 minutes. Yet Missouri had four players score at least a dozen points. The Tigers never trailed in the final 25:48 and led for nearly 36 minutes.
“I think we expect guys to step up,” Dru Smith said. “We have guys that are ready to come into the game, they’re waiting to play and they’re looking forward to their opportunity. And guys are going to have off nights. You can’t expect Mark to come out and knock down seven, six threes every single night. He’s going to have a couple nights where he’s off. So I think just having that bench, having that depth is something that we definitely pride ourselves on and something that showed up big for us tonight.”
Missouri built its lead in the first half by pushing the tempo, a sudden hallmark of this season’s team. The Tigers had played at a plodding pace for most of the past two seasons, but with Pinson pushing the ball up the court and Javon Pickett running the floor, Missouri scored 16 points in transition during the first 20 minutes. The Tigers also took advantage of the frequent whistles — the officials called 52 total fouls in the game — by making all 16 of its free throws in the first half. The team led by eight at the break.
Missouri would extend its lead all the way to 13 points in the second half. Dru Smith left his feet to shoot but found a cutting Pickett at the last moment for a layup, then stepped into a three-pointer and drained it, prompting an Illinois timeout with 9:17 to play. But the Illini, and particularly Dosunmu, wouldn’t roll over. Dosunmu scored 11 points in a 20-7 run to tie the game with 3:18 left. During the timeout, Pinson said he spoke up and reminded the team about all the close games that had ended poorly over the past couple seasons.
“When it was like three minutes left, I told my guys, we’ve been here before,” Pinson said. “We done punched teams in the mouth and then seen them go up late.”
This time, Missouri would get punched in the mouth — literally — but still prevailed in a wild, drawn-out ending. Mitchell Smith drew a foul away from the ball on Illinois’ Andre Curbelo and hit two free throws to reclaim the lead. A couple possessions later, Tilmon got whistled for his fifth foul on the offensive end — a mystifying call as he and Illinois center Kofi Cockburn jostled for position on the low block. That’s when Dru Smith came up with a steal, and Pinson beat his man and sunk Missouri’s first field goal in nearly seven minutes.
Illinois responded with a Cockburn dunk. But he got position when he popped Mitchell Smith in the face with his forearm, sending Smith falling to the floor. The officials stopped play to review the contact, ultimately ruling it a flagrant foul. Cockburn’s basket counted, but Dru Smith went to the line for two free throws. He made one, giving Missouri a three-point lead and the ball with 41 seconds to play.
The Tigers would run all 30 seconds off the clock, but Kobe Brown’s late three missed everything, resulting in a shot clock violation. That gave Illinois a chance to tie the game with 10.9 left. With three players on the floor with three fouls or more, Martin didn’t want his team to foul. So he told his players to contest three-pointers but give up drives to the hoop without fouling.
“If they get a two, they get a two, but not letting them flow into anything,” Martin said of Missouri’s strategy. “... We didn’t call anything tricky, just sit down and defend, and said if they turn the corner and get a two, we’ll give up a two. We’ll take our chances. If they get the ball in the interior, let them score the ball, don’t foul, because we still had the lead, and that’s how we looked at it.”
The ball, of course, went to Dosunmu. He sprinted to the right wing, pulled up from about 25 feet and launched an off-balance shot. It clanged off the rim. Brown secured the rebound and the win.
After the team celebrated on the court, posing for pictures with the five-foot-tall Braggin’ Rights trophy, Martin echoed Pinson’s words. He said Missouri didn’t play a perfect game, by any means, harping specifically on the 18 turnovers. But the Tigers pulled out the type of signature victory that will go a long way on their postseason resume, and the type of game they’ve found themselves on the wrong side of all too often the past two years.
“We’ve had our share of differences and different types of losses, games getting away from us down the stretch,” Martin said. “We’ve seen it all, and just finding ways to win games, keeping our composure, and we certainly know games are 40 minutes, and we got to play it ‘til it’s over.”
Below is our full post-game report, starting with five things we learned from the game.
* Missouri turned the ball over 18 times, tied for a season-high. It got just eight combined points from Tilmon and Mark Smith. It made 5 of 21 three-pointers. Yet the Tigers controlled the vast majority of this matchup against a top-10 team. They had a rotating cast of players take turns stepping up during key stretches.
“I just think we have enough. We’re good enough now," Martin said. "And I’ve said it before, when you’ve got guys that can come off the bench and help you. And I still think we’ve got a ways to go on our bench."
The difference between this team and that of past seasons, Martin said, is that the Tigers have enough playmakers and enough confidence to struggle in some aspects, such as turnovers or three-point shooting, and still pull out a win. He believes the Tigers can still play better than they've shown so far this season.
"Like I say to our guys, let’s get one more point and we’re good to go," he said. "We can deal with all of the other stuff later, but let’s try to score one more point than our opponent.”
* Tilmon's foul trouble, in particular, forced Martin to get a bit creative with his lineups. Due to the presence of Cockburn, listed at 7-foot, 285 pounds, Martin initially opted to sub Tilmon for true freshman Jordan Wilmore. Wilmore, who had played just six minutes all season entering Saturday, played three against the Illini.
“I was going into the game with Jordan Wilmore playing," Martin said. "I felt like more so Jordan on Kofi than Parker (Braun), just because of the physical stature."
Then, Martin went the opposite direction, putting an ultra-small lineup on the floor for a period of the first half. The 6-foot-5 Pickett played the four position, with 6-foot-7 Brown at the five. Missouri gave up a few baskets to Cockburn on the defensive end but was able to beat Illinois down the floor the other way.
Finally, Martin praised Mitchell Smith for his work guarding Cockburn, despite the fact that he's listed at 64 pounds lighter.
“As coach said in the locker room after the game, he said Mitch has the heart of a lion," Dru Smith said. "...You can never question Mitch’s effort. He’s always going to give you everything he’s got. So we can’t thank him enough. He had a great game. He was able to kind of disrupt things on their offensive end, he was able to switch out onto smaller guys and stay in front of the ball, just his versatility really helps us a lot, and we’re really proud of the performance that he had tonight.”
* Not only did Brown have to play some center and guard Cockburn on the defensive end, he made a few big plays for Missouri on offense, as well. Brown finished the game with 12 points, nine in the first half, on 5-8 shooting. He also led the way with eight rebounds. Martin, who wasn't afraid to say he wanted more from Brown despite a 14-point scoring game against Wichita State last weekend, said he was most pleased by his willingness to drive to the rim.
"I thought he was aggressive," Martin said. "That’s what I liked about him tonight, I thought he was more aggressive. I think he has to get better, especially when he has Kofi on him, taking advantage of that matchup, taking him off the dribble. ... Kobe’s good off the bounce. He’s got a big guy like that on him, he can make plays."
* Martin told his team entering the game that whichever team won the rebounding battle would win on the scoreboard, as well. The Tigers proved him correct, out-rebounding Illinois 35-26. Missouri also had three more offensive rebounds and two more second-chance points. That came against a team that entered the day ranked fourth in the country in rebounds per game, pulling down an average of 12 boards more per game than its opponents.
The Tigers beat the Illini on the glass not the same way they won the game — not with any outstanding individual performance but a strong collective effort. Eight of the 10 players who played more than one minute grabbed at least two rebounds. Brown led the way with eight boards, while Mitchell Smith had seven and Pickett had five.
"I thought our guards did a great job blocking out, being physical," Martin said. "... We knew we had to control the glass.”
* Perhaps the biggest difference between this year's Missouri team and past squads is the pace of play. Martin gave his guard-heavy roster the green light to push the pace whenever possible during the offseason, even knowing it would likely mean sacrificing a bit at the defensive end. Saturday, Missouri's pace allowed it to rack up 49 points in the first half. Sixteen of those came in transition. For reference, Illinois, which plays at a quick pace itself, only scored 14 fast break points all game.
Dru Smith, Pinson and Pickett did the majority of Missouri's damage in transition.
“We work on that a lot in practice, the wings getting out, spreading the floor," Pickett said. "Our guards did a good job of looking ahead. Once we controlled the rebound, we were just getting out, and we work on that a lot in practice, running wide, running fast, and today it just worked out for us.”
In the second half, Illinois kept Missouri from getting transition opportunities, which played a part in the Tigers shooting just 40 percent from the floor (compared to 53.4 percent in the first 20 minutes) and scoring 32 points.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Missouri still hasn't really found its three-point stroke this season. Saturday's 23.8 percent shooting from behind the arc marked a season-low and dropped the year's average to 31.0 percent. With leading outside shooter Mark Smith struggling, he only player to shoot better than 25 percent from behind the arc was Brown, who made two of five attempts.
STAR OF THE GAME: Dru Smith led Missouri in scoring on one end and got the unenviable task of guarding Dosunmu on the other. As mentioned above, he made some clutch plays with his defense, passing and shooting in the second half. He played all but one minute. His poise looks to be rubbing off on his teammates.
"He’s a tough kid. He’s a fighter. He competes," Martin said of Dru Smith. "He’s very intelligent as a basketball player. He had a very tough assignment. Ayo had 36, I’m not sure if half of those were on Dru, but they did a good job of, on their ball screens, switching so they’re matched up on different guys to get downhill."
WHAT IT MEANS: Missouri is off to its best start in at least seven years, and likely a lot longer. The last time the Tigers started a season 5-0 was 2013-14, but none of those first five victories came over a ranked opponent. The last time Missouri won its first five games, including at least one victory over a ranked team and one away from Mizzou Arena, was 2011-2012. The Tigers haven't beaten a team ranked this high since knocking off No. 5 Florida in February of 2013. This team looks like it is finally ready to deliver on Martin's promises that, if healthy, it could not just for an NCAA Tournament bid, but legitimately contend to win the SEC.
QUOTABLE: “It doesn’t matter to me. I think it might matter to our fans, and I think it matters to the extent to our players, just from the standpoint they’re recognized for their worked, because if we’re not ranked, all of it is foolishness, anyway. What’s the point in having it? Because that means you’re telling me there are 25 teams that are better than us. We’ve beat two ranked team. How many teams in America have beat two ranked teams? How many teams in America have won true road games? It’s all phony to me, at the end of the day. I don’t know why you rank teams anyway until after maybe December. That’s all that buddy-buddy, behind the scenes stuff, and I’ve never been a fan of it because I don’t cut no side deals, I’ve never had those kind of relationships. So I don’t worry about it because I know what it is, and I could care less, but I know it means something to our players.” -- Cuonzo Martin on being ranked
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