Tigers keep control of the ball
No. 16 Illinois has established itself as one of the better teams in the country at forcing turnovers, doing so on at least 23% of possessions heading into Thursday’s Braggin’ Rights game according to KenPom. But Missouri largely managed to avoid surrendering the ball to the Fighting Illini.
The Tigers coughed the ball up just 10 times, Illinois credited with six steals. Mizzou also handed out 23 assists on 35 field goals made. Senior forward Kobe Brown led the way with a career-high eight assists, with point guards Nick Honor and Sean East tied for second dishing out four each. It’s the team’s highest assist-to-turnover ratio since defeating Houston Christian on Nov. 26.
Eight of the Fighting Illini’s have posted negative assist-to-turnover ratios this season. Of the four teams who had positive ratios against the team, Missouri’s was the highest by far — Texas had the second-highest with a 1.43-to-1 ratio.
Tigers head coach Dennis Gates was pleased with the way his players moved the ball.
“We had 23 assists, that's a great team stat, team goal of ours,” Gates said. “I'm not satisfied with the 10 turnovers because we had five turnovers unforced and I'll debrief and I'll be able to let these guys know.”
Illinois head coach Brad Underwood thought his team left a lot to be desired.
“We've got a lot of time before (Illinois' first conference game on) Jan. 4, to clean a lot of stuff up in terms of the execution on the offensive side, which is leading to very bad defense,” Underwood said. “And it's probably the worst defense that any of my teams have ever played. Just mistake after mistake after mistake. And we'll have to work very, very hard to try and make some changes on that side.”
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