The script looked so familiar. Missouri had led for almost all of the first 30 minutes. The opponent--this time it was Texas A&M, but it could have been just about anyone the Tigers have played lately--had clawed its way back and even taken a lead. Everybody knew what was going to happen.
But then it didn't.
This time, the Tigers finally found a way to win, making enough plays--and free throws--down the stretch to close out the Aggies in a 70-66 win that moved them to 9-13 overall this season and 3-6 in SEC play.
"We just stayed true to what we did," Kobe Brown said. "One of the big points was minimizing our mental lapses, minimizing mistakes because the last five minutes is the most important part of the game. Every little thing matters."
The Tigers took the lead for good at 62-61 on Boogie Coleman's fourth three-pointer of the day with 3:41 to go. Missouri would never be tied or trail again, but it wasn't easy.
Kobe Brown's sixth and final assist of the day led to a DaJuan Gordon layup that put Mizzou up 64-61. The Tigers extended the lead to five on a shot-clock beating jumper from Amari Davis with a minute to play, but saw it cut back to two on Hayden Hefner's fifth three-pointer of the game (he had just four all season before Saturday).
An empty Mizzou possession and a foul sent Quenton Jackson to the free throw line with 12 seconds left and a chance to tie it for the Aggies. But Jackson missed the front end of the one-and-one, the Aggies fouled Kobe Brown and he made both and Mizzou escaped with its first win in more than two weeks.
Brown led the way for Mizzou with 21 points, six rebounds and six assists and made 11 of his 12 free throw attempts. It was just the second time in the last nine games the Tigers' leading scorer had been in double figures. Mizzou is 9-4 when Brown hits double digits this season and 0-9 when he doesn't.
"Just be Kobe," Cuonzo Martin said. "He wants to be good and he puts so much time into trying to be a good player, studying film.
"He's consumed with everything. So you want to see it go for him. Not to say you don't want it for other guys, but when you have good guys and guys that put in what he puts into it and the level of character, you want it to go for him. Happy to see him play a good game."
1. The hard truth is that nothing major actually changed on Saturday.
The final score changecd. Missouri had more points than the other team. That's important.
But we so often overanalyze every little thing and look for people to blame and reasons things happened. Missouri made one or two more plays on Saturday than it had made in previous games. And A&M failed to make a couple. The point is, there weren't major philosophical changes, Martin isn't a better (or worse) coach than he has been in many of the close losses this season (with perhaps the notable exception of the loss to Auburn). Missouri's players made more plays than Texas A&M's players in the final four minutes.
"If there's anything, the aggressive approach," Martin said. "We were settling for too many two-point pullups, weren't shooting a great percentage from three and then we weren't sound defensively."
Martin said he felt Missouri was more aggressive down the stretch on Saturday than it has been in some of the previous close losses. But the Tigers still gave up a wide open three to the opposition's best three-point shooter. They had an empty possession where they didn't get a shot off in the final minute with a two-point lead and they sent the opponent to the line with a chance to tie the game.
A&M missed a free throw, Missouri made two. The opposite of what happened on Wednesday against Florida. For all the time we spend diagnosing where things go wrong, the truth is, the team that makes one more play down the stretch usually wins. On Saturday, that team was Missouri.
2. Everything Missouri does offensively goes through Kobe Brown.
The 21 points are going to get the attention and make no mistake, Missouri needed them all. But just as important, Brown had a team-high six assists, which means he scored or assisted on nearly half of the Tigers' 26 field goals against the Aggies.
"It's the other stuff, the assists, the rebounds, defending, moving the ball, switching five ways, all those things he brings to the table," Martin said. "He's one of the few guys in all of college basketball, you can flow through him at that size and he's going to create a problem for somebody."
The main beneficiary of Brown's generosity was Trevon Brazile, who scored eight points mostly flashing to the rim when Brown was double-teamed in the second half. Brown also managed to find Gordon out of a double-team for a late layup that put Missouri up 64-61.
"If he has two that means someone's wide open," Ronnie DeGray said. "Kobe does a great job with poise when two defenders come with reading and make the right decision. Sometimes there's two guys and he still scores."
3. Amari Davis has emerged as the No. 2 option on offense.
While Martin praised Brown's versatility as unique in college basketball, Amari Davis is the only other Tiger with an elite skill. A midrange jumper might not be the sexiest thing in college basketball, but it came up huge for the Tigers on Saturday.
A&M had taken a 55-53 lead with a 12-4 run capped by back-to-back dunks and the signs of the second half collapse were flashing brightly. Martin called timeout to regroup his team.
The ensuing possession, frankly, wasn't all that impressive. Missouri was running up against the end of the shot clock when Davis gathered the ball on the left wing against two defenders and fired up a 19-foot-turnaround that found the bottom of the net to tie the game.
Another dunk from Henry Coleman III had brought the Aggies to within three with 1:36 to play. Gordon again had the ball in his hands with the clock winding down. This team he fired from the top of the key and hit. The lead grew back to five with a minute to go.
"Tough shots that not a lot of us can hit," DeGray said. "He made them. It helped us. Down the stretch those are really big buckets for us."
"That's his game," Martin said. "You should see some of the shots he makes in practice off the pullup. That's why sometimes in late games we try to put the ball in his hands."
Martin said he has told most of his players to take fewer midrange jumpers and attack the rim. Davis is the exception because of his ability from that part of the floor. It came up big for the Tigers on Saturday.
4. Missouri won the game on the defensive glass.
At halftime, Texas A&M had stayed close largely thanks to nine second chance points on six offensive rebounds. In the second half, the Aggies had one offensive board and didn't convert it to points.
Martin always emphasizes rebounding with his team, but reinforced it on Saturday morning in College Station.
"I don't read the paper. Even when you guys write all that great stuff about me, I don't read it," Martin said with a chuckle. "But I did read it this morning and Buzz (Williams) talked about they want to be relentless in offensive rebounding. I saw that and took a picture of it and sent it to our guys. We talked about it. You brace yourself."
The effort paid off in the second half for Missouri.
5. Martin is focusing on the positives with his team in the second half of the season.
Missouri has improved since the early part of the conference schedule. The team that got run off the floor by Liberty, UMKC, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois and Arkansas has lost three games by a combined five points and another one it led late by ten since the 87-43 humiliation in Fayetteville on January 12. But they've still been losses. Saturday's game wasn't just important to validate some of that improvement to the team, but to show them the results of coming out with a win.
"What they've done a great job is to endure what comes with those tough losses," Martin said. "They come back to practice the next day with their hard hat on. Those days are tough.
"I think we're a totally different team than we were in the non-conference. Some painful losses, hard to sleep at night, but we've grown from them. I'm really proud because they keep coming back, they keep getting better, they like playing each other and they continue to grow."
Star of the Game: It has to be Brown. He scored against double-teams, he found teammates out of them and he made the right decision far more often than not. He's also the guy Missouri wants at the free throw line late. He came through when Missouri had to have it to extend the lead to two possessions and take away any hopes of a last-second miracle for A&M to complete the comback. When Brown is operating like he did on Saturday, Mizzou can win games. When he isn't, they just don't have enough other options.
Room for Improvement: The defensive blueprint is out there now. Every team is coming with a halfcourt trap. Missouri continues to pick the ball up when it crosses the midcourt line far too often, which leads to either turnovers or an offense that doesn't settle in until the shot clock is halfway gone. It's not exclusive to one player. The Tigers do it far too much. They're going to see the same defensive approach until they prove they can solve it.
What it means: In the grand scheme of things, not much. It does lend some hope that Missouri can take advantage of a schedule that's easier in the second half than it was in the first. The Aggies are slumping, now having lost six in a row. They get Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Georgia, all of whom are in the bottom five in the league standings. If Missouri can just beat the other bad teams on its schedule, it has a good shot to get to seven league wins and avoid the first day of the SEC Tournament. It's not the ultimate goal, but it's something.
Next up: Missouri will travel to Vanderbilt on Tuesday. The Commodores are 11-10 and 3-6 in the SEC, but lead LSU 69-57 with less than eight minutes to go at the time this is being written. Tipoff on Tuesday is set for 8 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Quotable: “They're a better offensive team, certainly offense and defense than they were in the non-conference, but I think they're a better offensive team today than they are defensive even though they're playing hard and doing some things. I think once we continue to raise our level of defense, it will be a beautiful sight.” -- Cuonzo Martin
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