Post-Game Report: Pinson carries Mizzou past No. 21 Oregon
On Missouri's first possession of its game against No. 21 Oregon, the ball got poked away from a couple Tiger players before finding its way into the hands of junior Xavier Pinson. Pinson fired from well beyond the three-point line and hit, giving Missouri a lead it would relinquish for only 56 seconds all game.
Pinson, however, wouldn't score again for more than 20 minutes. He missed his next five field goals and didn't put the ball through the basket for the remainder of the first half, yet Missouri jumped out to a 17-point lead and led by 11 at halftime. But in the second half, with the Ducks charging, Pinson took over. He made four of five field goals and scored 19 of Missouri's 41 points in the final 20 minutes, leading the team to an 83-75 victory.
Below is our full post-game report, starting with five things we learned from the game.
* The past couple seasons, Missouri has lacked a go-to guy who the team can look to for a bucket when it needs a lift. Pinson played that role Wednesday. The Tigers were not without a few offensive lulls, most notably a stretch that spanned across halftime when they missed 15 shots in a row (which, not coincidentally, ended when Pinson hit a three). Pinson made all the right decisions in the second half against Oregon, making each of his first four field goals, earning 10 trips to the free throw line and dishing two assists. With both Dru Smith and Mark Smith in foul trouble, he and Javon Pickett combined to score 30 points in the second half, including 26 of the first 28.
Head coach Cuonzo Martin said Pinson was pressing a bit in the first half, looking primarily to score. In the second half, he routinely made the right decision whether to shoot or pass based on what the Oregon defense gave him.
"Even though he’s scoring the ball and he’s so fast, his gift is really making plays for others," Martin said. "Now when he’s doing that, his ability to score the ball opens up because they have to identify so many other options."
Pinson followed his three-pointer to end Oregon's run early in the second half with nifty, spinning layup. But he saved his biggest bucket until just under seven minutes remained, when Oregon had once again cut Missouri's lead to single digits. Pinson pulled up from three or four feet beyond the three-point line, drained the shot and drew a foul. He would make the free throw, as well, to restore the lead to 12 points.
"It was a great shot," Pickett said. "He can do those type of things. He’s just doing whatever he needs to do to help the team win.”
* Missouri continued to play at the high tempo it showed during its season-opening win over Oral Roberts. More impressive, the Tigers did so without turning the ball over — even in the face of a full-court press. Turnovers have been an issue throughout Martin's tenure — Missouri committed 17 against Oral Roberts. Presses, even more so. But Wednesday, the Tigers scored 24 fastbreak points and turned the ball over just seven times. Only twice in Martin's tenures have they turned the ball over fewer times. Oregon, by contrast, finished with 10 turnovers.
Pinson said the improve ball security shows the team's growth.
“It just shows the growth and the maturity of our team," he said. "Me and Dru of course is a good backcourt, then you add Mark and his ability to dribble the ball. I feel like people underestimate Mark’s ability to handle the ball, like he’s a good guard, he’s not going to just turn it over. And then we got Buggs, of course, and he comes right in and does the same thing as Dru and I."
* Speaking of Mark Smith, the senior sharpshooter played a large role in helping Missouri build the early lead it would maintain throughout the second half. Smith, who led Missouri in scoring during the season-opener, made three of five three-point attempts in the first half. All 13 of his points came in the first 30 minutes. Missouri led by as many as 17 before the break.
Perhaps more surprising than Smith's outside shooting was his ability to score twice from inside the arc, including when he drove baseline, scored and drew a foul. Martin said that's a product of his hard work.
"He works his butt off," Martin said. "That’s one thing about him, he works, and he works, and he’s improved his ability to make plays, jumping, all of that."
* Jeremiah Tilmon's night doesn't jump off the stat sheet, but the senior once again stayed on the floor and had a big night on the glass. Tilmon scored 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 30 minutes of action. He committed just three fouls. Martin revealed after the game that Tilmon got hit in the back against Oral Roberts, so he was playing through some pain, but that Missouri benefitted from his experience against Oregon.
Tilmon was one of five Missouri players to score in double-figures — for the second game in a row. That balanced scoring Is something the Tigers haven't shown the past couple years, which is one reason the team has scored more than 80 points in consecutive games for the first time since the fall of 2017.
"I think they value each other, they want to see each other be successful," Martin said of his players. "They don’t really care who gets the shot, they’re not those kind of guys, and that part is fun.”
* Martin and his players didn't shy away from acknowledging that this win meant a little bit more than most. The victory marked Missouri's first win over a ranked opponent away from Mizzou Arena in nearly eight years, since the Tigers knocked off No. 10 Illinois. It was the program's first non-conference win over a ranked opponent since a 2013 victory over UCLA.
More than that, this felt like a breakthrough for a squad that has experienced more than its fair share of early-season disappointment the past two years, both due to injuries and tough losses. Martin has been saying for years that Missouri could make some noise in the SEC if it just had everyone healthy. This win should help both the roster and the fanbase buy into that.
"We just deserved it," Pinson said. "Our fans deserved it, even though they can’t be here with us right now. I feel like the whole organization deserved this win. We just all laid it on the line and did what we had to to get the win.”
Next up, Missouri travels to Wichita State on Sunday.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Missouri returned to its 2019-20 form from behind the three-point arc, making less than 30 percent of its attempts from deep. The Tigers hoisted 31 three-pointers in the game, making nine. Twenty-two of those attempts came in the first half, so credit Missouri for at least adjusting down the stretch and attacking the basket more often. Outside of Pinson and Mark Smith, Missouri combined to shoot 3-of-18 from three-point range.
STAR OF THE GAME: This one has to go to Pinson. Here's his full stat line from the second half: 19 points on four-of-five shooting, two rebounds, two assists, zero turnovers, zero fouls in 17 minutes. Aside from one missed free throw, he was just about perfect. Missouri needed someone to step up and carry the load in the second half, and he answered the bell.
WHAT IT MEANS: We already covered the historical significance of Missouri's victory — the fact that a win over a ranked, non-conference opponent away from home hasn't happened in eight years. But what does it mean for this season? For one, it's obviously a resume-booster. Oregon entered Wednesday ranked in both the AP and coaches' polls and ranked No. 19 by KenPom.com. The victory makes Missouri the first SEC team to beat a top-50 KenPom team. For a squad whose clear goal is to return to the NCAA Tournament, this win could go a long way.
But it also gives the Tigers something they haven't had the past couple seasons: momentum. Missouri had lost three games by Dec. 3 each of the past two seasons. Last year, one of those losses came to Charleston Southern. Pinson actually brought up last season's last-second loss at Xavier, saying the team talked before the game about how that could have altered the course of the year. The hope is that this win provides such a jolt as the team enters a stretch that offers two more games against top-100 competition in the next two weeks.
"Just to come back this year and really just start off right and start off solid, I feel like it’s everything," Pinson said. "Everybody did everything they could, everybody tried to get one extra rebound, one extra assist, one extra bucket if possible, one extra charge. Everybody laid it all out on the line. So I feel like it’s way more gratifying in every kind of way.”
QUOTABLE: “We always try to take pride in development. Sometimes in our profession you don’t have a lot of time for that, and I’ve always been a man that operates with a high level of integrity, so you can figure out whatever that means. ... And just, they’re good guys. I mean, some of the guys came in with character flaws and all that, you got to clean all that up. So much stuff goes on behind the scenes that you try to help with. It consumes you physically and emotionally, but it’s your job as a staff to make sure you do the right things and be successful, then you start to see some of the results. But I like going to battle with them, because they value each other, they want to see each other succeed, they don’t care who gets the accolades. I mean, now you have a situation where two or three guys want to guard the other team’s best player, like they’re fighting to do that. That hasn’t happened in the past, and that’s a good sign.” -- Cuonzo Martin
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