Missouri’s stumble to the finish in its 83-79 loss against West Virginia Sunday night left an awfully sour taste in players’ mouths. The Tigers were in control for the first 33 minutes of the game, but Bob Huggins’ patented full-court trapping press finally got Mizzou in the final minutes.
In a little over a minute — between the 7:19 and 6:15 marks of the second half — West Virginia forced five Tiger turnovers and cut Mizzou’s lead from 14 points to eight. Even then, Mizzou was still able to bring its lead back up to double-digits with just under five minutes to go. The Mountaineers were lights out after that, though, closing the game on a 23-9 run in which guards Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles Jr. scored 19 of those 23 WVU points.
Despite the positives of playing with and handily beating a top-25 team for more than 3/4 of the game, players weren’t taking any solace in moral victories.
“Yeah, it’s cool that we built a big lead, but at the end of the day it doesn’t mean anything because we lost,” junior forward Kevin Puryear said. “That’s the kind of head space I’m in. I think everybody’s in it honestly. We didn’t win the game, so in our eyes we didn’t finish the job. We did a lot of good things over the course of the tournament, but we didn’t have the outcome we wanted. Now it’s time to start working toward the rest of the season.”
Kassius Robertson added: “We weren’t excited that we built a lead. We went in there expecting to beat that team, and we should’ve beat that team. We were the better team; we just didn’t take care of the ball.”
Cuonzo on the ‘Gram
Head coach Cuonzo Martin jokingly admitted Tuesday that he might need to spend more time on Instagram after hearing of Michael Porter Jr.’s now-deleted post about the length of his recovery time from back surgery being shorter than the 3-4 months Mizzou announced a week ago. Martin said it’s the first time he’s heard of the infamous post that sent Tiger fans back into a frenzy.
“I would imagine Mike just probably feels good,” Martin said. “Really guys, everyone wants to see Mike on the floor, but the most important thing for me in Mike’s health. That’s all I’m concerned with. The surgery was a success, but that’s one day at a time. I don’t have any other information outside of that other than he’s feeling better. But I need to do more Instagram, huh?”
Martin also said he isn’t concerned with whether Porter Jr. is on the bench with the team going forward.
“It’s not a case of where we’re going go be sitting there game planning whether he’s going to be on the bench or not. It’s more about how feels, and again, his health is more important.”
Big Tacko
Mizzou will face off Thursday night against a Central Florida team that boasts the tallest player in college basketball, 7-foot-6 Senegalese center Tacko Fall. The 2017 AAC Defensive Player of the Year boasts an outrageous 8-foot wingspan and is averaging 2.5 blocks per game to go along with 10.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest.
Junior forward Kevin Puryear said he doesn’t know much about the Knights yet, but he does know about “Big Tacko.”
Martin said trying to plan for Fall is different than any other player he’s scouted, and the most important thing will be to give him different looks and take away his strengths (i.e. rebounding and blocking shots).
Jontay making the jump
The healthy but less-heralded Porter brother has come into his own recently, scoring in double-figures four out of the past six games, including a 16-point, 5-rebound performance against St. John's last Friday.
After reclassifying up to play with his older brother, it was expected that Jontay Porter would contribute a few minutes here and there, but would likely play behind Michael, Jordan Barnett and Puryear. Instead, he’s becoming one of Mizzou’s most potent all-around weapons, averaging 10.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game while shooting better than 40 percent from behind the arc.
Porter was relatively late in joining the team because his final decision to reclassify didn’t become known until August. Puryear and graduate transfer guard Kassius Robertson say they’ve been impressed with how the younger Porter has matured on the court since he arrived in Columbia.
“It’s pretty remarkable what he’s doing at his age, you know he just turned 18,” Puryear said. “Which I kind of forget about sometimes. His maturity level and his poise for how young he is extremely remarkable and we’re glad he’s a part of our team.”
“Obviously he’s a great talent,” Robertson said. “It’s really impressive for his size and his age. He does a really good job shooting the ball; I think he’s shooting something like 90 percent from the free throw line. His rebounding is off the charts, especially in big games like (West Virginia). Against a team like that, they’re bangers up top and down low, so he does a good job handling his own, and he’s pretty poised for a young kid.”
