Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning
1) It was a bad week for Missouri basketball. The Tigers went 0-2 and got there in diametrically opposite ways. Last Tuesday, it wasn't that Mizzou lost, it was how Mizzou lost. It was obvious to anybody watching--including Cuonzo Martin--that the Tigers just didn't give a full effort. Certainly that wasn't true of the entire team. But Martin has consistently said over his three-and-a-half years (and well before that in his coaching career) that defense and rebounding are the most important things to him because those are effort areas. Certainly those things have something to do with talent and ability, but they also have a lot to do with pride and how much you want it. Missouri collectively didn't want it much in Oxford. The Tigers were outrebounded 34-19. Even allowing for the fact that it was hard to get many rebounds because Ole Miss was barely missing any shots, that's a huge margin. In fact, it ties the margin at Mississippi State. Those are the only two games in which Mizzou has been outrebounded by double digits. On the other side, Mizzou has gotten at least ten more rebounds than its opponent five times. It also marked the third time in four games Mizzou gave up 80 points in regulation after going 19 consecutive games before that stretch without doing so.
On Saturday, the Tigers returned home and the only thing to really dislike about the game was the final score. Missouri played shorthanded and it played hard. You really couldn't question the effort. The Tigers got contributions from everybody that saw the floor. Martin said after the game he was proud of the effort. In most ways, it was an encouraging bounce back to see after the Ole Miss game. This team might have mailed it in for a day, but it wasn't something that was going to become a trend. But in the end, it added up to two losses that halted the momentum of what had been, up until that point, a season without much to dislike.
2) So Mizzou fans are feeling down, but you shouldn't feel as down as you have. The polls will come out later today and Missouri will almost certainly still be in the top 25. Gary Parrish and Jeff Goodman have both released their own top 25 and Mizzou is solidly inside both of them at 19th and 16th. Mizzou will still be a top 25 team come Monday afternoon, which will mark the 10th straight week in which the Tigers are ranked. If there's one trend that's a bit disturbing, it's that every time the Tigers rise in the rankings, they seem to respond with a loss. Mizzou was ranked 12th in the December 28th poll and got slaughtered by Tennessee in its next game; on January 25th, Mizzou got back to 12th and lost to Auburn the next time out; after beating Alabama, Mizzou rose to a season-high 10th and then had the Ole Miss debacle. There are two ways to look at this: The first is that Mizzou gets a little complacent when it is rewarded in the rankings. The second is that while Mizzou is a top 25 team, it isn't a top 15 team. I'd lean toward the second more than the first.
3) There's no reason to panic yet, but this week is the most important of the season for Missouri.
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