On January 4, Missouri went to Starkville, Miss., in body if not in spirit. The Tigers turned in perhaps their worst effort of the season in a 72-45 loss to Mississippi State that was never in doubt. The Bulldogs had won nine of 12 SEC games headed into Saturday’s rematch, but knew they were going to get a far different Tiger team.
“I would say we’re way more locked in and focused,” Xavier Pinson said. “I feel like this team has grown a lot with accountability and being where they got to be on time and putting in the extra work. We’ve all gotten better.”
Mississippi State came out on top in round two as well, but had to work a lot harder to do so. The Bulldogs beat the Tigers 67-63 on Saturday, inching them closer to the NCAA Tournament. But in the loss, the Tigers made a believer out of MSU coach Ben Howland too.
“Missouri played so well today,” the Bulldogs’ head coach said. “Just so you guys know, I told my staff this before the game, they’ll be in the NCAA Tournament next year.”
That belief centered largely around Mizzou’s backcourt combo of Dru Smith and Xavier Pinson, about whom Howland spent the first half of his post-game press conference gushing.
“Those two guards are special,” Howland said. “I think Dru Smith’s so good and the way that Pinson’s been playing, just incredible…Pinson is a sophomore. He’s incredible. He’s so hard to guard.
“Dru Smith, I thought he was just incredible tonight. Dru Smith is from Indiana. He started learning how to pivot and jump stop when he was three or four years old. That’s what I think about guys out of Indiana. They learn so early how to play, the fundamental soundness, how he gets into the paint and jump stops and shot fakes. I’ve got all this film watching him in my head over and over and over again on how he gets to the lane and is able to get you off balance when he doesn’t have a clean look. He’s just so smart and so fundamentally sound. God, is he good.”
Smith scored 19 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had three steals against the Bulldogs. Pinson scored a game-high 20 (though he took 21 shots to do it) and added five rebounds. The two were on the floor for a combined 72 of 80 possible minutes.
In the last seven games, Smith has averaged 17 points per contest while Pinson is averaging 20.7. The offensive revival for the Tigers has been directly attributable to their two guards who are driving to the rim with abandon. Mizzou now can seemingly count on at least 30 a night between the two.
“Yeah, probably,” Mitchell Smith said. “They’re both electric. Dru can get buckets at will. He can reel off maybe five in a row. X can do the same thing. We just kind of watch how they’re playing and we adapt to them.”
The Tigers got 39 from Pinson and Smith in this one. Both will be back next year and they could enter the season as the top backcourt in the Southeastern Conference. But the reason the Tigers lost on Saturday is that the pair got little help.
“I thought we made a lot of plays where guys were getting some good looks,” Dru Smith said. “Those shots will go in. They just didn’t happen to fall today.”
Outside of Pinson and Smith, Missouri made only eight field goals on the game and missed all 12 three-pointers it took. Mizzou played 11 players against the Bulldogs and only five made a shot. The other six (Javon Pickett, Kobe Brown, Torrence Watson, Tray Jackson, Mark Smith and Parker Braun) were a combined 0-10 from the field, 0-9 from three point range and scored exactly one point.
“Javon got his back banged up late in the first half,” Cuonzo Martin said. “Kobe, I think he’s a better scorer than that. Torrence, you’ve got to get production there. Whoever that is, you have to get production.”
Those six players also had just ten rebounds (seven from Brown), three assists and one steal in 68 total minutes.
“We can’t have the level of success with X and Dru playing 35, 40 minutes. That’s exhausting,” Martin said. “We can’t have that many guys with zeroes. That’s hard to win a game of that magnitude.”
Missouri has to get what it’s been getting from Pinson and Smith to be good for whatever remains of this season. But it has to get something else too. Howland said after the game that Pickett taking all three of his shots from behind the three-point line was a plus for the Bulldogs. Martin said “it didn’t feel right for me” with Mark Smith in his second game back from a back injury, limiting him to 13 minutes. Brown missed all five of his shots including an airball from ten feet in a close game late. Braun, Jackson and Watson combined to play all of six minutes, contributing a rebound, a turnover and three fouls to the final box score.
Missouri’s top two are playing as well as just about any two teammates in the league right now. But they’re not good enough to win SEC games by themselves. Mississippi State played eight players in the game. All eight made at least one shot and seven of the eight contributed something positive other than points to the box score. If Mizzou had the two most productive players on the floor, the Bulldogs had six of the next seven. Someone else is going to have to emerge, not just the rest of this season, but next as well, if Martin is going to be able to deliver that tournament bid Howland thinks awaits Mizzou.
“Then teams can’t really focus just on X and Dru,” Mitchell Smith said. “You’ve got to be worried about all of us. When Reed’s having a good game, you’ve got to worry about Reed too. You can’t just focus on two people or one person during the game.”
Missouri didn’t get that on Saturday. If the Tigers want their season to extend beyond the middle of next week, they’ll need to get it going forward. From someone.
Ever go home after a long day and want to mix yourself a fancy cocktail, but don’t have the time or ingredients? Let Boulevard Beverage Company be your bartender! Introducing ready to drink Fling Craft Cocktails in a can. These flavorful spirit-based drinks are made with all natural ingredients and offer low calories and carbs. Try our blood orange vodka soda, cucumber lime gin and tonic, mai-tai and margarita. Click on the logo above for more information.
Fling Cocktails, the official game day sponsor of PowerMizzou.com Go Tigers!
