1) So Mizzou at least solved half the state of Mississippi on the basketball court this season. Coming into this season, the Tigers were 3-15 against Ole Miss since joining the SEC. That went along with a 4-10 mark against Mississippi State. Mizzou. managed to beat the Rebels twice, but lost to the Bulldogs twice. The Mississippi State games both came in the last four days and pretty much perfectly encapsulated Missouri's season. The first was in Starkville. Mizzou led 7-5 and then gave up a 19-6 run, trailed by 11 at halftime and never really made it interesting. In the second, on Sunday in Columbia, Mizzou led for 21 minutes and MSU for just ten. The Tigers held the lead most of the second half, then scored just five points in the final 5:13 (two in the final 3:40 and none in the last 1:55) to lose by two. Missouri has lost games by either getting blown out in the first half or collapsing in the final four minutes. They managed to do both in the course of a single weekend.
2) It's easy to play the what if game on Sunday. A single play by Missouri in the final two minutes (or five, or really at any point) could very well change the game. But that is, to steal a phrase from Sam Mellinger, "the ballad of the loser." Bad teams look back at the end of the year and say "we were only five plays from being a lot better." Good teams make those plays. Bad teams don't. And here's how small the difference is: Missouri has lost four home games by one possession. They have led all four late. I want to be clear that this is not an argument that Cuonzo Martin should keep his job (more on that in a minute). Good teams make those plays, bad teams don't and the coach is the one who holds responsibility for either one in the end. So I'm not telling you Martin should return because Missouri was almost decent. Not at all. Simply pointing out that changing four plays puts this team 14-13 and 8-6 in the SEC. If that's the case, there's not even a discussion that Martin should lose his job. Yes, some would want it, but it wouldn't even be a question. Again, not saying he should be back. Just illustrating that multi-million dollar a year jobs are often determined by just a handful of seconds.
3) Obviously, however, Martin's job status is indeed a question.
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