Study Hall: Missouri 84, Navy 59

Your Trifecta: Denmon-MPressey-PPressey. Your winner: nobody, though tigers-royals came awfully close.

First, some links!

MUtigers.com: No. 10 Tigers Remain Unbeaten, Down Navy 84-59
MUtigers.com: Mizzou vs. Navy Post Game Notes
MUtigers.com: Mizzou vs. Navy Post Game Quotes
The Trib: Tigers improve to 9-0 with rout of Navy
The Missourian: Andrew Jones makes debut on Missouri men's basketball team
Post-Dispatch: Tigers heed Haith warning, stay on undefeated roll
KC Star: MU routs Navy, improves to 9-0
KC Star: MU notebook: Ratliffe’s streak cools off
PowerMizzou: Tigers stay focused, rout Navy
KBIA Sports Extra: Mizzou men handle Midshipmen, move to 9-0
Fox Sports MW: Denmon helps Tigers stay unbeaten, take down Navy

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When Mizzou takes its foot off of the accelerator, it takes its foot off of the accelerator. As was the case against Northwestern State, the Tigers rode a hot streak to a huge lead, then gave a good portion of it back. They went up 68-34 on a Phil Pressey dunk with 9:47 left, then watched as the Midshipmen went on a (futile) 24-6 run.

Now, complaining about how your team responds to a 30+ point lead is pretty much the sports blog definition of the "#firstworldproblems" Twitter hashtag. Lapses that take place when your team is up by an insurmountable amount are the ultimate in "problems you want to have," though as a fan it is at least one percent disconcerting that these players are ever capable of playing like that. Still, it's hard to wring your hands too much when your team can coast for the game's first 10-12 minutes ... and still be up 34 with ten minutes remaining in the game.

Missouri 84, Navy 59

Looks A Lot Like, Well, A Mizzou Win

Over 1.2 points per possession? Check. Fewer than 0.9 points allowed per possession? Check. True shooting percentage over 60%? Check. Win the BCI battle? Check. This game played out like a lot of Mizzou wins have this year, despite the streaks and droughts.

Well-Coached And Lacking In Talent

I'll say this for Navy: they know what they want to do. They showed solid vision and ball-handling ability, and they made quite a few nice cuts and passes ... but they just couldn't shoot or convert what they wanted to convert. I think Ed DeChellis could be a nice hire for a school like this, but he still needs to figure out a way to pull in a bit more talent than is currently there.

Mizzou Player Stats

(Definitions at the bottom of the post.)

That's what we like to call "Pulling A Marcus." He only makes himself noticeable a couple of times, and otherwise he just makes his open shots, lets the game come to him ... and ends up with 22 points. He is nearly automatic this year.

• Weird, weird game for Ricardo Ratliffe. He was invisible for the first ten minutes, then went on an 8-1 run all by himself (expanding Mizzou's lead from six to 13), then pulled an incredible brainfart early in the second half -- he got the rebound, twirled around for the putback and was so convinced he had made it that he started running back down the court with his arm in the air; he had, in fact, missed -- then executing a perfect pick-and-roll to end Navy's 24-6 run and start one last Mizzou push to get the lead back into the 20s. In the end, however, he went 6-for-9 from the field and it was actually somewhat disappointing; that's how well he's been playing of late. (The four turnovers, on the other hand, were legitimately disappointing.)
  
• Matt Pressey, king of garbage time. He missed a couple of jumpers and scored seven points over his first 20 minutes on the court, then poured in a 3-pointer and two free throws in the game's final three minutes.
• Ten field goal attempts, Phil? And 'only' five assists? Ball hog.
  
  (Kidding.)
• A quiet, mostly efficient evening for Kim English, who once again made at least 50 percent of his 3-pointers but struggled in the ball-handling department. He alone was responsible for one-third of Mizzou's turnovers.
• I think we would all take seven points in 16 minutes from Steve Moore anytime he wants to deliver it.

To the checklist!

Marcus Denmon's Usage% needs to be 23% or higher. (Yes!)
Kim English's %T/O needs to be at 10% or lower. (No.)
Kim English's Floor% should be at 35% or higher. (Yes!)
Ricardo Ratliffe's %Fouled should be at least 10%. (Yes!)
Phil Pressey's Touches/Possession need to be 3.5 or better. (Yes!)
Mike Dixon's %Pass should be 55% or higher. (Yes!)
Steve Moore's Touches/Possession should be at least 1.0. (Yes!)

Six for seven. Once again, this game played out like your typical Mizzou win, even if there were a few highs and lows.

Summary

Right now, the goal is simple: plow through Kennesaw State (on Thursday) and William & Mary (on Sunday) and head to St. Louis undefeated. It is an attainable, likely goal, and it could result in the biggest Braggin' Rights battle in quite a few years. Illinois hasn't been quite as impressive overall, but they are indeed still undefeated, and if they can survive UNLV on Saturday, the Illini and Tigers could be a combined 23-0 for Braggin' Rights. That's, uh, impressive. Make it happen!

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AdjGS: a take-off of the Game Score metric (definition here) accepted by a lot of basketball stat nerds. It takes points, assists, rebounds (offensive & defensive), steals, blocks, turnovers and fouls into account to determine an individual's "score" for a given game. The "adjustment" in Adjusted Game Score is simply matching the total game scores to the total points scored in the game, thereby redistributing the game's points scored to those who had the biggest impact on the game itself, instead of just how many balls a player put through a basket.

Usage%: This "estimates the % of team possessions a player consumes while on the floor" (via). The usage of those possessions is determined via a formula using field goal and free throw attempts, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. The higher the number, the more prevalent a player is (good or bad) in a team's offensive outcome. As you would expect, someone like Kim English has a high Usage%, while Steve Moore has an extremely low one.

Floor%: Via Basketball-Reference.com: Floor % answers the question, "when Player X uses a possession, what is the probability that his team scores at least 1 point?". The higher the Floor%, the more frequently the team probably scores when the given player is involved.

Touches/Possession: Using field goal attempts, free throw attempts, assists and turnovers, Touches attempt to estimate "the number of times a player touched the ball in an attacking position on the floor." Take the estimated touches and divide it by the estimated number of possessions for which a player was on the court, and you get a rough idea of how many times a player touched the ball in a given possession. For point guards, you'll see the number in the 3-4 range. For shooting guards and wings, 2-3. For Steve Moore, 1.30. You get the idea.

Anyway, using the Touches figure, we can estimate the percentage of time a player "in an attacking position" passes, shoots, turns the ball over, or gets fouled.