Missouri took the court without its best post player, and maybe its most important player, period, against Arkansas. Due to a death in his family, senior Jeremiah Tilmon, who scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds when Missouri beat Arkansas on Jan. 2, didn't play Saturday. By the final minutes, the Tigers were down their other two most experienced interior players, as well. Kobe Brown didn't play the final 15 minutes of game action due to cramps. Mitchell Smith, who made his first start of the season in place of Tilmon, fouled out on the first possession of overtime.
Missouri almost pulled out a season sweep of the Razorbacks, anyway. The Tigers overcame a four-point deficit in the final minute of regulation, the comeback capped when rarely-used redshirt sophomore Parker Braun caught a pass from Dru Smith, pump-faked and laid the ball in to tie the game with nine seconds to play. Braun then blocked the shot of Davonte Davis to force overtime.
Missouri led by a point with less than a minute to play in the extra period, but Moses Moody found a cutting Davis for a layup, giving Arkansas the lead for good. Dru Smith appeared to have answered when his layup got blocked by Jalen Tate and the officials called goaltending, but upon review, the play was deemed a clean block.
Smith then got another chance, but ran into traffic and had his pass for Braun tipped. Arkansas came away with a steal. After Moses Moody hit a pair of free throws to extend the Razorback lead to three points, Xavier Pinson tried a desperation three from the right wing that didn't hit rim. Missouri's streak of five wins in games decided by five points or fewer came to an end with Arkansas winning 86-81.
Below is our recap of the loss, including what we learned.
* With no Tilmon or Brown, Missouri couldn't quite match Arkansas down low in the second half, on either end of the floor. Missouri, which scored 48 points in the paint when these two teams met last month, scored 28 this time around. Arkansas was able to clog the paint and bring help when a Missouri perimeter player drove without the fear of a lob to Tilmon.
On the other end, Missouri had to contend with both 6-foot-10 Justin Smith and 7-foot-3 Connor Vanover. The Tigers wound up asking a perimeter player to guard Vanover for much of the second half, with Pinson, Torrence Watson and Mark Smith each defending him. While Vanover didn't score many times after posting up a smaller defender, he did score all 12 of his points in the second half. Smith, who missed Arkansas' first matchup against Missouri, led all scorers with 19 points and also grabbed six rebounds. Thirty-six of Arkansas' points came in the paint.
"Teams have to focus on him a lot," Watson said of Tilmon. "With him getting the ball in the post and Arkansas not having a true big, that took something away from us. As well as just his shot blocking in the middle. Guys don’t make as many drives with J.T. in there."
Asked whether Tilmon would be back in action Tuesday when Missouri travels to Georgia, Martin answered "I don't know."
* Missouri needed a lot of contributions from unlikely players just to make the game competitive. All nine Tiger players who saw the floor scored, and seven of the nine scored at least six points.
Mitchell Smith hit two three-pointers in the first four minutes of the game. Watson, who didn't appear in three games this year and had played more than 10 minutes just three times, knocked down three triples in his 26 minutes. Backup point guard Drew Buggs, normally not a scorer, contributed a season-high eight points, including his first three of the year.
Braun, who heard his last name pronounced wrong by the public address announcer during the game's opening minutes, nearly ended the day as the hero. Forced to play a career-high 26 minutes, Braun came up clutch on both Missouri's final offensive and defensive possessions of regulation. His demonstrated the poise of a much more experienced player in not rushing the game-tying layup, waiting until he had a clean look around Vanover. He finished the game with six points and three rebounds.
"I practice every day and go through reps like everyone else," Braun said. "It’s not like I’m scared or nervous or anything like that. I’ve played this game a long time. There aren’t really scenarios I’m uncomfortable with."
After the game, Martin said Braun did "an admirable job" serving as the Tigers' only viable post option in critical minutes.
"Just to see the growth in Parker Braun, though we came up short, he will grow from that game, playing in major minutes down the stretch of a ball game," Martin said. "And I think, really happy to see Torrence make shots because I know how much time he’s put into it. So that part is great, especially for us moving forward. Hopefully he can continue to capitalize, but that was good to see."
* While Missouri may have been fortunate to make the game close, the team's execution in the final minute of overtime left a bit to be desired. After the goaltending call on Dru Smith was reversed, Missouri got a bit of a gift, as the possession arrow gave the Tigers the ball despite the fact that Arkansas had controlled the rebound following the block. Missouri failed to get a shot off. Then, trailing by three with 12 seconds left, Pinson never passed the ball and had to settle for a contested, fadeaway heave that didn't touch the rim.
Martin did point out that he thought the goaltending call was correct, so in the huddle with his players during the replay review, he was setting up a defensive plan. Still, he said the staff called a play it believed the team could execute. Arkansas simply defended it well.
"I thought it was a goaltend," Martin said. "We were trying to set our defense to get stops and do what we need to do. But then it was our ball. We had a play that we wanted to execute."
As for Pinson's last shot, Martin said he had called a play during the team's timeout prior to Moody's free throws that the team had previously had executed in practice. He didn't divulge specific details, but he did say if Pinson had an open look, he had the green light to shoot a three. Pinson had made five of seven threes prior to that point. Ultimately, Martin said he hoped for a better look.
"That wasn’t the shot we were looking for," Martin said. "That was a play we’ve executed in practice, so that certainly wasn’t the shot we were looking for. If he had a clean shot, shoot it, but I don’t think that was a clean look.”
* Missouri's defense suffocated Arkansas in the first meeting between the two teams this season, holding the Razorbacks to 26.8 percent shooting — their worst percentage ever in Bud Walton Arena. The first half Saturday looked much the same, with Missouri's defense rotating well and contesting everything at the rim. Arkansas shot 10-30 during the first half, including 6-20 from inside the three-point arc, and Missouri took a four-point lead into the break.
But after halftime, Arkansas found its offensive footing, and Missouri struggled to find a counter. Arkansas shot 59.4 percent during the second half and overtime and scored 59 points during those 25 minutes. The Razorbacks were particularly effective in pick-and-roll actions, especially when Vanover or Smith were involved.
"It was good when we had certain people on the defensive side in (the pick and roll), but then we had a couple guys that just weren’t as good in it, weren’t gritty enough in it," Martin said. "But when we had certain guys there, we were good. But it was a chess match there, we had to give up something to get something, and it’s just like you hope we can get stops, and that’s part of it.”
"We can’t get give up the lobs," Watson said. "They had two lobs at Ole Miss. Today, there were two lobs. That’s something we talk about too much to give up. They’re really big energy plays."
The most damaging defensive possession for Missouri came in the final minute of overtime. Missouri led by a point when Davis beat Javon Pickett — who had just entered the game in place of Pinson — for a back-door cut. Moody found him for an open layup, giving Arkansas a lead it wouldn't relinquish.
"That hurt," Martin said. "That took a lot of air out of our guys, because we were positioned for that and that’s something we talked about, be ready for this in that specific play, or be ready. So that was unfortunate.”
* Missouri feasted in the paint during its win over Arkansas last month, but with Tilmon absent, Missouri struggled to find open looks around the basket. The Tigers made up for it with their best three-point shooting of the season, which allowed them to keep the game competitive.
Missouri entered Saturday shooting just 30.7 percent from three-point range on the year, but the Tigers made 40.6 percent of their looks from behind the arc against Arkansas. The team's 13 makes and 32 attempts both represented season highs. Five Missouri players made a three-pointer, and four made multiple shots from deep.
Martin said it wasn't necessarily part of the game plan to rely so heavily on the three-ball, even once Missouri found out it would be without Tilmon, but he was okay with his team attempting so many shots from outside because they were generally open looks. He noted that, while the team's three-point percentage still looks ugly, it has been shooting the ball better of late, topping 40 percent from outside in five of the past seven games. If the Tigers can keep that up when Tilmon returns, it could help open up more scoring opportunities for the oft-doubled big man.
"I think the Auburn game was a game we didn’t shoot the three-ball well, but we’ve been shooting the ball well," Martin said. "And this is kind of the way I thought we’d be able to shoot the ball as a team, because we’ve got guys that can make shots. It’s just the comfort, relaxing, shooting game rep shots in practice. So not surprised at that. But it’s also taking good shots. It’s not as if we’re taking off the dribble tough three-point shots. We’re taking shots that we practiced."
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: While quite a few Missouri players exceeded their season-averages with Tilmon out and Brown hurt, Mark Smith continued to struggle. The senior guard scored four points in 28 minutes and failed to make a field goal, missing all eight of his shots and all five three-pointers. Smith, who entered this season as Missouri's best three-point shooter, is shooting just 21.8 percent from beyond the arc during conference play.
"I think sometimes if his shot isn’t falling, because of the time he puts into it, I think it gets to him mentally," Martin said of Smith. "And he just has to continue to stay the course, stay aggressive, stay strong. But I just think that’s what happens, when it’s not falling, it consumes him because of how much time, how much effort, how he approaches it, how he prepares."
STAR OF THE GAME: Pinson bounced back from a brutal outing at Ole Miss to lead Missouri in scoring with 23 points. Several of his five made three-pointers came at crucial moments. However, he also struggled to stay on the floor due to foul trouble, and it's hard to overlook his shot selection on Missouri's final offensive possession. So we'll use this space to give Watson some love. Ten days ago, he didn't see the floor against Kentucky. Saturday, with the team short-handed and Smith struggling, he looked ready when his number was called, making each of his first three attempts from three-point range. At just 6-foot-5, he had to play the four position at times, and he held his own pretty well on the defensive end.
"I just tried to carry my load," Watson said. "Going forward it’s just staying ready. You never know when your time will come I was just ready when my number was called."
WHAT IT MEANS: While it may have taken a gutsy effort for Missouri just to force overtime, this loss will almost certainly move the Tigers out of position to earn a top four seed in the NCAA Tournament — at least if the season ended today. Prior to the game, the tournament selection committee revealed its top 16 teams through as of Saturday morning. Missouri checked in at No. 16, the last of the four seeds.
It's the second missed opportunity this week for a Quadrant I win since Missouri vaulted to No. 10 in both the AP and Coaches' polls a week ago after handing Alabama its first league loss of the season. The Tigers are running out of such opportunities. As the schedule currently stands, Missouri only has one game remaining against a team in the top 50, the regular season finale at Florida. That could change if the team makes up its home matchup against LSU, which was scheduled for DATE but postponed, but the point remains: Missouri's ceiling for an NCAA Tournament seed dipped significantly this week.
QUOTABLE: “We saw a lot of fight out of our team today, out of Mizzou. We had lineups that weren’t usually out there. Missing Tilly was really hard. But down the stretch we kept our composure. We did a really good job forcing OT after being down four with a minute left. We didn’t finish in OT but we did a great job putting ourselves in position to win." -- Torrence Watson
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