Study Hall: Texas A&M
by Bill C. on Mar 11, 2011 8:01 AM CST
in Mizzou Basketball 10-11
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Your Trifecta: Denmon-PPressey-English. Your winner: nobody. No Mizzou fan won last night? Seems fitting.
Texas A&M 86, Mizzou 71
| Mizzou |
A&M | |
| Pace (No. of Possessions) |
69.6 |
|
| Points Per Minute |
1.78 |
2.15 |
| Points Per Possession (PPP) |
1.02 |
1.24 |
| Points Per Shot (PPS) |
1.27 |
1.91 |
| 2-PT FG% | 39.0% |
62.1% |
| 3-PT FG% | 20.0% |
50.0% |
| FT% | 81.1% |
76.5% |
| True Shooting % | 49.1% |
71.7% |
| Mizzou | A&M | |
| Assists | 10 |
20 |
| Steals | 12 |
5 |
| Turnovers | 11 |
18 |
| Ball Control Index (BCI) (Assists + Steals) / TO |
2.00 |
1.39 |
| Mizzou | A&M | |
| Expected Offensive Rebounds | 14 |
8 |
| Offensive Rebounds | 12 |
8 |
| Difference | -2 |
+0 |
Tell Me Why SBN Lets Me Write For Them Again?
I sometimes pound my chest when I get things right, and with very good reason: sometimes I'm horribly, horribly wrong. Case in point: yesterday's "Know Your Rival" piece.
Shooting is a complete push.
Not so much.
Want to find out who won? Look at total possessions, free throws and rebounds.
The game was played much closer to Mizzou's pace than A&M's, Mizzou amazingly shot three more free throws than A&M, and in the end, A&M only outrebounded Mizzou by two in terms of expected boards. And A&M won by 15.
I do not think there will be much hangover from last night. That's more of a fan thing than a players thing, I think. The game did not go to overtime, Mizzou survived, they all got good sleep last night (presumably), they're all 19-22 years old ... they'll be fine.
Instead, Mizzou played like they were on the fourth game in four days. No legs on the jumper, about four steps slow on defense. Kim English said they "quit" after the game, but I didn't really see that ... I saw a bunch of players whose faces showed that how badly they wanted to be trying hard, and whose legs would not let that happen. They seemed to care, but they didn't have the ability/know-how/whatever to actually do the right thing.
(Make no mistake: I don't want to seem like I'm blaming everything simply on legs or freshness ... but the legs and freshness certainly weren't there, that's for sure.)
Almost Doubled Up
A&M shot 62.1% on 2-point shots, Mizzou 39.0%. Obviously you saw this yourself in the table above, but ... Sweet Jesus! I mean ... 39.0% isn't really even that amazing for 3-point shooting.
Man oh man, does A&M own Mizzou.
When Opponents Shoot Really, Really Well, Mizzou Loses ... Probably By a Lot
This statement was brought to you by the University of Phoenix School of Obvious Statements Are Obvious. Texas A&M's 71.7% true shooting percentage was the second-highest Mizzou has allowed this year. Here are the six times Mizzou has allowed 60% TS or higher ... and the results associated with each game.
- vs Georgetown (11/30): 72.2% TS, 1.37 points per possession, nine-point Mizzou loss.
- vs Texas A&M (3/10): 71.7% TS, 1.24 points per possession, 15-point Mizzou loss.
- at Kansas (2/7): 70.2% TS, 1.47 points per possession, 17-point Mizzou loss.
- at Kansas State (2/26): 62.0% TS, 1.19 points per possession, 10-point Mizzou loss.
- at Nebraska (3/1): 60.4% TS, 1.08 points per possession, 11-point Mizzou loss.
- at Texas A&M (1/15): 60.1% TS, 1.27 points per possession, two-point Mizzou loss.
The silver lining? This means Mizzou is 23-4 when allowing under 60.0% TS. Which is ... something. Mizzou's NCAA Tournament opponent next Thursday or Friday is rather likely to be a 7-, 8-, 9- or 10-seed ... and of the six opponents on the above list, only one (Nebraska) is likely to be lower than a 6-7 seed in the Tournament. In other words, Mizzou's first-round opponent is unlikely to be offensively proficient enough to shoot 60% in terms of true shooting percentage.
So Mizzou's got THAT going for them...
Hey, speaking of silver linings...
Four More Reasons This Game Wasn't As Bad As You Think
Because I want to be at least one percent optimistic heading into the NCAA Tournament, I'm going to force myself to be positive about last night's stinker. The "Mizzou is unlikely to face a great shooting team in Round One" statement above is Reason No. 1 why things aren't as bad as they seem. Here are four more.
2. Mizzou is Manufacturing Points. This really is a lovely development. For all the things Mizzou did wrong yesterday, they still scored 71 points and averaged over a point per possession because they have become much more successful at forcing the issue and drawing contact in the last three games. Despite playing from behind from the opening tip, Mizzou drew more fouls (26 to 25) and shot more free throws (37 to 34) than an ATM team that seemed to have the fouls advantage heading into the game.
For the season, Mizzou has shot 0.34 free throws per field goal attempt. In the last three games: 0.52 (95 free throw attempts, 181 field goal attempts). Granted, the 74 fouls they've drawn have been a bit negated by the 71 they have committed, but ... even that's an improvement. In the three games before the last three, Mizzou committed 58 fouls and drew just 40. Led by Mike Dixon and Kim English (and certainly supplemented by Marcus Denmon), Mizzou is getting to the line and assuring that they're going to put points on the board even when the jumpers aren't falling.
And the jumpers certainly weren't falling yesterday. When A&M played average defense, it resulted in a bad-looking shot. When A&M played good defense, it resulted in a terrible-looking shot.
3. The Effort Never Went Away. Clearly the effort was, um, misguided (i.e. it didn't translate into anything resembling good defense) ... but rebounding stats and steals show that Mizzou never stopped trying. After a first half in which A&M grabbed four offensive rebounds on just seven missed field goal attempts, Mizzou shut things down much better in the second half. Granted, A&M wasn't missing enough shots for it to actually matter, and granted, Mizzou's defense was downright putrid, but ... again, this is a list of positives. So stop being negative, mmm-kay?
4. We Might Be Seeing "Kim English, Leader." We have no idea how the team will react -- and for all we know, it could be in a negative way -- but Kim English was extremely harsh on the team after last night's game, saying "For the first time in my however many games here, I thought we quit." Now ... Anderson, English's teammates, and the stats I referenced above says they didn't necessarily quit ... but I'm not so much worried about the details. Looking toward next season, the one thing I absolutely want to see from this team is senior leadership -- Mizzou will have six seniors, and while Marcus Denmon is clearly a "lead by example" guy, and Laurence Bowers is too ... I want to know that there's a DeMarre Carroll-style, words-and-deeds leader. Obviously Kimmeh is the main candidate, and if calling his team out after a game like that is what is necessary (especially after a game in which Kimmeh was throwing his body around, diving onto the floor for loose balls, etc.), then I'm glad he gave it a shot.
Of course, his criticism was not in any way artfully worded, and if the team chemistry is affected by such a statement, then it could backfire ... but a) I don't see that happening, and b) positivity!!
5. We've Seen All the Pieces. As mentioned in comments after the Kansas game ... Mizzou may not be playing well right now, but at least we've seen evidence that Missouri can play well in all aspects of the game. We've seen the offense click (14 games at 1.15 points per possession or higher), we've seen the defense play at least reasonably well (0.94 points per possession against Kansas at home, 0.87 versus Baylor, 0.97 versus Colorado, 0.63 versus Iowa State, 0.90 versus Kansas State ... all at home, granted), we've seen this team rebound well (A&M I, Old Dominion, KSU I, etc.), and we've seen this team play at a really high level overall (they were, after all, ranked all season). And unlike even the vaunted 2008-09 season, we haven't seen them lay a complete and total egg. (Yes, Nebraska and Oklahoma State were close, but those were still only six- and 11-point losses.) In all, they've only lost one game by more than 15 points. In 2009-10, they lost two by that margin. In 2008-09, they lost three.
In other words, while this team may not be putting together the pieces for a true NCAA Tourney run (and even if they did, having to play a 1- or 2-seed in the second round would likely cut that run short), they still have some things going for them, and they're probably not going to completely embarrass themselves. So they've got that going for them too...which is nice.
Mizzou Player Stats
(Definitions at the bottom of the post.)
| Player |
AdjGS | GmSc/Min | Line |
| Marcus Denmon |
26.1 |
0.77 |
34 Min, 22 Pts (6-11 FG, 3-5 3PT, 7-11 FT), 3 Reb (2 Off), 2 Stl |
| Phil Pressey |
13.8 |
0.53 |
26 Min, 9 Pts (2-9 FG, 0-3 3PT, 5-5 FT), 6 Stl, 5 Ast, 4 Reb, 4 TO |
| Kim English |
13.3 |
0.53 |
25 Min, 12 Pts (2-7 FG, 0-2 3PT, 8-10 FT), 2 Ast |
| Laurence Bowers |
11.3 |
0.36 |
31 Min, 13 Pts (4-10 FG, 5-5 FT), 6 Reb (2 Off), 2 TO, 4 PF |
| Ricardo Ratliffe |
6.6 |
0.30 |
22 Min, 6 Pts (2-5 FG, 0-1 3PT, 2-2 FT), 3 Reb, 4 PF |
| Steve Moore |
4.0 |
0.26 |
15 Min, 2 Pts (1-1 FG), 3 Reb, 2 Blk, 4 PF |
| Mike Dixon |
0.7 |
0.05 |
14 Min, 2 Pts (1-5 FG, 0-2 3PT) |
| Matt Pressey |
0.1 |
0.01 |
16 Min, 3 Pts (0-1 FG, 3-4 FT), 2 TO |
| Justin Safford |
-3.2 |
-0.30 |
11 Min, 2 Pts (1-4 FG, 0-1 3PT) |
| Ricky Kreklow |
-4.1 |
-0.82 |
5 Min, 0 Pts (0-3 FG), 2 Reb (2 Off) |
| Jarrett Sutton |
0.0 |
0.00 |
1 Min |
- Marcus Denmon: stat-padder extraordinaire.
- Nobody needs this offseason to come faster than Ricky Kreklow. The rationale for calling him "Nuke" was that when he was in the game, something crazy was going to happen, good or bad. For most of 2011, it's been almost all bad, sans the Oklahoma game. Last night, despite two offensive rebounds, it was really bad. I'm very, very ready for both Nuke and Flip to not be freshmen anymore.
- Another positive: six steals for Flip. He still managed a 2.50 BCI despite four turnovers. That's pretty good, even though he still hasn't found the jumper he misplaced a few games ago.
| Player | Usage% | Floor% | Touches/ Poss. |
%Pass | %Shoot | %Fouled | %T/O |
| Denmon |
24% |
46% |
2.2 |
23% |
43% |
30% |
4% |
| P. Pressey |
28% |
32% |
5.1 |
64% |
20% |
8% |
8% |
| English |
22% |
42% |
3.0 |
46% |
27% |
27% |
0% |
| Bowers |
22% |
38% |
2.0 |
28% |
47% |
16% |
9% |
| Ratliffe |
13% |
41% |
0.8 |
0% |
78% |
22% |
0% |
| Moore |
3% |
100% |
0.2 |
0% |
100% |
0% |
0% |
| Dixon |
17% |
23% |
2.2 |
54% |
46% |
0% |
0% |
| M. Pressey |
14% |
25% |
1.0 |
0% |
17% |
48% |
35% |
| Safford |
22% |
17% |
1.3 |
0% |
80% |
0% |
20% |
| Kreklow |
38% |
0% |
2.3 |
0% |
75% |
0% |
25% |
Three Keys Revisited
From yesterday's preview.
Heat Check
Between Marcus Denmon, Mike Dixon and Phil Pressey (and I guess Kim English) for Mizzou, and Khris Middleton and B.J. Holmes for A&M, this game will feature lots of players who can get hot at a moment's notice. Whichever of these players can carry their team's scoring load for the longest period of time will put themselves in very good position to make the semis.
B.J. Holmes: 4-for-6 on 3-pointers. Denmon, Dixon, Pressey and English: 3-for-12. Throw in 20 points on eight field goal attempts from David Loubeau, and I think we know who was hot and who wasn't.
Play Your Game
A&M plays slow, draws fouls and crashes the boards. Mizzou plays fast and controls the ball. Want to find out who won? Look at total possessions, free throws and rebounds.
As mentioned above, these factors actually somewhat favored Mizzou. Whoops.
Whistles
I always hate putting this one on here, but ... let's face it: Bowers, Ratliffe, Moore and Safford have all faced serious foul issues in recent games. If A&M is able to thin Mizzou's bigs out and hit the glass even harder, Mizzou is in trouble. And if Dixon and English are driving to contact and attacking and aren't getting the calls, I'm not sure how they score enough points to win.
I was 100000% unimpressed with the officiating, but that's because I'm 100000% unimpressed with most officiating. Mizzou's bigs did indeed get into foul trouble, but to Mizzou's credit, they did what they could to get A&M into foul trouble as well. In the end, this game was decided by the fact that, for a long portion of the game, Mizzou couldn't make a jumper, and A&M couldn't miss.
In other words, only one of the three Keys was even remotely a factor in the game. Go me.
Summary
Positivity! Watch a bunch of other teams play basketball this weekend, join us for Selection Sunday, then find your last reserves of hope for the tourney. We know all the reasons to be negative about this team ... but negativity's no fun.
---
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.
57 comments
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Comments
It's just baffling to me
how the jumpers on this team go cold. I don’t remember streaks of shooting this bad even in the last days of the Snyder era. I wonder if part of it is structural though. We’re a team that runs a motion offense to keep everyone engaged and involved, forcing all 5 guys to defend. However, we really depend on transition points(even off defensive rebounds) because our ball movement just is not all that great. Watch Kansas or aTm run their offense, and compare it to ours. I don’t think the Motion is very effective beyond the original move plus a pass, and the KU’s and aTms continually move the ball into dangerous spots that force increasingly frantic help and rotations.
Defensively, I really think we’re our own worst enemy at times. I’d like to see us actually get burned by someone taking it all the way to the basket a few times rather than over-help and give up wide open threes and dump offs to bigs at the baseline.
Anyways, on to the positivity!
I love love love how we’ve been attacking the basket, it’s been masking our horrific shooting to an extent.
I feel pretty good about our chances against a Pac-10/SEC/ACC/Mid-Major opponent, and given the current lay of the land, that seems quite likely.
Mike Anderson has consistently outperformed his seed in the NCAAs, even last year when we stumbled into the tournament. I know I’m going to be picking them to fulfill their seed + 1 game.
By seemingly locking themselves into an 8/9 game, they’re making it more and more likely I might make a trip to go see them considering the locales of likely #1 seeds.
"I'm a genius, but I'm a misunderstood genius."
"What's misunderstood about you?"
"Nobody thinks I'm a genius."
by Transmogrified Tiger on Mar 11, 2011 8:28 AM CST reply actions
Couldnt agree more.....
Not making shots is such a weak and easy excuse for losing (right next to the refs screwed us)…….What about getting open shots in the first place? When Bowers and Ratliffe are shooting 19 footers and passing out of the post it stands to reason that you’re not going to shoot a high percentage.
I also agree
I see other teams moving the ball around and getting it in deep with the pass better than this team does.
Driving the ball has helped, but that should be the third option with the ball (pass, shoot, drive).
I think once we've re-adjusted our expectations
this can still be a fun postseason. Mizzou will be playing in the NCAA tournament next Thursday or Friday for the 3rd year in a row, after a FIVE YEAR drought. I absolutely love watching my Tigers play in the NCAA, and as long as we don’t EXPECT to make it to the second weekend, we can still enjoy watching and cheering for our team.
"I have CDO. It's like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order. Like they should be."
My expectations have been adjusted
If Mizzou loses in the first round, I’ll be irritated, but it will be of the “oh, well” variety. Success will be a pleasant surprise.
We have seen glimpses, adjustments, reasons for positivity. The defense remains a huge concern.
This is an amazingly bad defensive team given the quality of the athletes
Here are the teams who have managed to allow more than 86 points to A&M this season:
Alcorn State
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Prairie View
Wagner
Missouri (twice)
You hear terms like basketball IQ and a feel for the game used quite often about players on offense, but they apply to the defensive end as well. This team has an atrocious defensive IQ. They have no feel for when to double team, they get caught in mismatches all the time because of bad switching, they can’t identify shooters, and players who have the quickness to stay in front of their men allow far too much penetration, resulting in foul trouble for the bigs.
All of these problems have been evident since they played Georgetown in November and they haven’t improved a bit. The only conclusion you can draw is this is a bad defensive team.
Apologies to Tiller and Taylor for underestimating your contributions.
Go here
http://kenpom.com/team.php?team=Texas%20A%26M
And look at what all the games you listed have in common.
I don’t want to spend a great deal of time defending the Mizzou defense(puns!), but shaping the list that way is misleading. They allowed that many points because of pace(and an OT game). In the same way, here’s the list of teams to score 71+ points on aTm:
Texas
Baylor
Missouri (twice)
"I'm a genius, but I'm a misunderstood genius."
"What's misunderstood about you?"
"Nobody thinks I'm a genius."
by Transmogrified Tiger on Mar 11, 2011 9:39 AM CST up reply actions 6 recs
The point is that A&M will gladly take what is so readily given them
If Missouri offered more resistance, the pace of the A&M games would be slower. A&M wants to play slower and normally does. But because A&M is finding shots that it doesn’t get against most teams, it becomes a fast-paced team.
I think that's giving aTm too much credit
but it’s beside my original point. We both agree the defense was bad in both aTm games, the worst(by counting or by possession) of any power conference team aTm played.
"I'm a genius, but I'm a misunderstood genius."
"What's misunderstood about you?"
"Nobody thinks I'm a genius."
by Transmogrified Tiger on Mar 11, 2011 10:11 AM CST up reply actions
Transmogrified Tiger is brining it today
2 recs from me (not that them being from me is especially noteworthy) and it’s not even 10.
You might want to take a closer look at his list
Those other games in which teams scored more than 71 against A&M were quite different than the two games against Mizzou. In these so-called fast-paced games, A&M scored 49 and 60 in blowout losses to Texas and needed overtime to get to 74 in a loss to Baylor. The Missouri games on that list obviously weren’t A&M losses.
At least I provided a list that had some consistency in the results. All games in which A&M, a team that can struggle offensively, scored a lot of points and won.
That wasn't the point
The point was that using raw counting numbers like that was misleading. Would you say that Mizzou put up the 3rd and 4th best offensive performances that aTm saw this year?
"I'm a genius, but I'm a misunderstood genius."
"What's misunderstood about you?"
"Nobody thinks I'm a genius."
by Transmogrified Tiger on Mar 11, 2011 10:22 AM CST up reply actions
No, I wouldn't
I’d have to look at it closer and consider more factors. I’d say the Mizzou game in College Station was the best offensive game against A&M this season. I doubt last night’s game was in the top five.
You’re right that point totals don’t always tell the whole story. But I think in this particular instance they are an effective way to illustrate a season-long trend of bad Misouri defense. Those two games with Missouri stand out as such an abberation of the way A&M normally plays on offense.
Don’t forget Ramsey! I loved that guy, even though he had his offensive limitations and got pushed around sometimes.
Someone (maybe Bill?) said prior to the season that this team may not be able to defend, and he was right. Bob Knight noticed that A&M’s points were being scored on our press, generally speaking. Something’s wrong when your supposed strength leads to easy buckets by your opponents. I hope MA loses the brand — “fastest 40” — and simply plays to win. We would have done better this season with no press in my opinion.
You hope MA "loses the brand"...
…that has led to his entire coaching career and successes? I wouldn’t hold my breath on that.
I’m not. But if you’re getting killed when you press, you shouldn’t let ideology trump reason. UNC plays fast, but that doesn’t mean they have to press all the time. Also, it’s not the fastest 40 so it’s kinda false advertising.
Miller Lite doesn't have great taste...
… but I doubt they drop that branding soon either.
RockMNation.com (@rockmnation)
Fighting mob mentality since 2007
But it
less filling… so there’s that.
"Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy." --Frank Sinatra
by Other Side of the Pillow on Mar 12, 2011 9:32 AM CST up reply actions
I was embarrassed last night
not by the team. But by the fans that I sat around. Kimmeh missed a 3 early in the game that was actually the result of good ball movement and an open look in the corner. It misses and a guy starts screaming about how he can’t play. The noise level was pathetically low (except when we booed officials). There was more blue and red than black and gold and one guy yelled “you’ve got one foot out the door Anderson.”
Sometimes I think the only people I dislike more than kU fans are MU fans if everything isn’t going perfectly.
I realize this doesn’t apply to almost anyone here (and the “almost” is not a reference to anyone in particular) and that I am preaching to the choir, but i had to get it off of my chest.
I was at MSG yesterday for the afternoon Big East session
I think I’ve mentioned that a few times… :)
But anyway, the Syracuse fans around me were insanely obnoxious and critical of their own team. They seemed to loathe Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine in ways that only the harshest Tigerboard fans can loathe English and Safford. The swearing, anger, etc. were uncommon, even to this lifelong Tiger fan.
I guess the moral of the story is that there are sour apples in every bunch. Since we spend the most time amongst each other and our closest enemies, it magnifies how bad some of our fans, ku fans, etc. can be. It’s pretty much the same everywhere.
It may be the same everywhere
but it doesn’t make it any more forgiveable.
In other words, if Syracuse fans jumped off a cliff, should we? To answer my own question, if it was the idiots sitting behind me, yes, you should jump off the cliff.
Oh, I'm with you on that
I don’t find a place for that attitude anywhere, personally. I’m just saying that we are not (much) worse than many other places.
What was the crowd supposed to get excited about?
I remember the crowd getting pretty in to it when we cut the lead to 10. TEN! That was the best thing we had to cheer about.
I do agree that the crowd wasn’t very in to the game, and that Mizzou fans are exceedingly cynical (Rivaled only by KU fans sense of impending doom during every game). They (we) weren’t in to the game on Wednesday either except for a few moments. I guess that’s the nature of these tournaments in the early days when there are still 8 different groups of fans at the game.
the crowd could get excited about
1) seeing its team play in the Big 12 tournament
2) seeing its team have a chance to avenge an earlier loss
3) being there
Before the tip off started it had a very “chardonay crowd” there. Our players were getting introduced and it didn’t sound any louder than when A&M was introduced. This wasn’t a neutral court game, it was a sterile court game.
Our team feeds off crowd energy, none was provided.
I'm disappointed by this season
I read somewhere else that it is a good year, and I agree. I also think it is disappointing.
I thought we’d be better than we were projected to be. We were picked to finish 5th in the conference, we finished 6th.
The football team won more road conference games than the basketball team.
Coach Anderson has never beaten aTm. Beaten kU just once, and had an opportunity to do so again in the final home game and the team laid an egg.
I don’t think they’ve achieved their potential at all. I can’t believe I’m seeing the bad D I see from a Mike Anderson team I’ve seen this year.
The aTm thing is perplexing
We’ve beaten every other school in the conference at least twice since I’ve followed Mizzou, but not aTm even once?
It does suck losing to KU, but part of it is that they are going through a bit of a golden age, even for Kansas. They’ve lost 6 conference games the last 3 years, and never to the same team twice. We’re one of those teams that’s beaten them, so I have a hard time being super angry that we haven’t done it again.
On the season, I think the non-conference exceeded expectations a bit, and conference fell short of expectations a bit. Going into the season, if you were able to tell me that Mizzou wasn’t going to have Mitchell at all, I would have said we finish about 4th/5th in the conference and probably have a similar tournament fate as last year. We win our game next week, and that whole story(yay non-con, boo conference, okay tourney) fits pretty well I think.
"I'm a genius, but I'm a misunderstood genius."
"What's misunderstood about you?"
"Nobody thinks I'm a genius."
by Transmogrified Tiger on Mar 11, 2011 9:35 AM CST up reply actions
It's... okay
Maybe I’m a bit harsh on the team, probably because I think they can be better.
I don’t know how they can be so average at best on defense. D was the thing they’ve prided themselves on the past few years and teams just gash and confuse them so badly this year. When your shots aren’t falling, you need to be able to play D. The previous three years they could do that, but not this year. If the shots aren’t falling, they have to fight not to get blown out.
I think it's a combination of things
Pressey/Dixon/Pressey/Denmon are all small enough that they can’t consistently keep people out of the lane like Taylor/Tiller/Denmon/Dixon could. That leads to guys helping in the paint(which I referenced at the top) and gives teams wide open threes or shots at the hoop. Ungood.
Thin frontcourt. Mitchell/Underwood/Green all being unavailable has put us in a bind. Anderson isn’t able to use playing time as a reward for performance. Plus, Bowers and Ratliffe have done a poor job of avoiding bad fouls, and it’s led to frontcourt guys playing 10+ minutes at a time. We can’t play our system effectively with Safford and Moore playing huge chunks of time without a blow.
Inexperience. We had 3 senior starters each of the last 2 years, and this year we have one senior who starts intermittently. Plus, 40% of our rotation had zero D1 experience heading into this season.
Fortunately, a couple of those things are fixable, and the other can be mitigated if we’re smart about help defense. Hopefully next year brings back something that more resembles the Tiller/Taylor/Carroll days of defense.
"I'm a genius, but I'm a misunderstood genius."
"What's misunderstood about you?"
"Nobody thinks I'm a genius."
by Transmogrified Tiger on Mar 11, 2011 9:46 AM CST up reply actions 4 recs
Forget my comment below. This.
Rec’d.
"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin
Wow, very, very good post
Pretty much sums it up. Green + Porter + maybe a Juco big – Safford should = front line improvement next year. Now, add a defensive minded guard in the mold of JT or Z and we could be talking.
I hope it's all fixable
They just don’t seem to have gotten any better as the year went on (sometimes seemingly worse in regards to Ratliffe).
Just a different mix of talent
Tiller and Taylor were extraordinary defenders, and perfect fits for this system. But, it’s worth saying, they were also the source of many of those teams’ scoring droughts.
This group of perimeter players isn’t in the same category defensively, but they’re not poor defenders either. They have much higher offensive upside on the perimeter. (Think G’Town, 1st half at KU, ODU, Baylor.)
We don’t have anything like the kind of quality depth in the frontcourt. Ratliffe, at his best, isn’t the kind of athlete that DeMarre, Leo, or even Keith was.
You are right about the fact that this team needs to see the ball go in the hole to be effective. But, that’s actually most teams. It’s just foreign to us on a CMA coached team.
"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin
I agree, they've underachieved
I had 25 regular season wins, a 3-5 seed in the tourney, and a Sweet 16 run as realistic goals, or benchmarks, I guess. So looking at that, I am a bit bummed.
But who knows what can happen in the next week or two? Bill mentioned in one of his Rock-M-Tology’s how insanely deep the tourney pool could be in the 5-10 seed range, when throwing out the cruddy bubble teams. When I started to look at all of these projections…by God, he’s absolutely right. I think there’s the potential for absolute carnage in the tourney next week, and who’s to say the Tigers cannot add to it? If we play like we did vs. ODU, K-State, Colorado, Baylor home games…why not?
I feel like the team just needs something positive to happen
I really think the effort has been there all season, but they have to feel just beat down by their inability to put it all together in one game. It’s clear at this point that we are not a great perimiter defensive team, but we have the personnel and ability to be as good as we were in December. But even our victories lately have been more negative than positive (i.e., Texas Tech)
That's why I believe it's more of a psyche thing than anything else
Beyond just physical instruction and coaching, this team needs confidence.
I know this is one of those comments that seems kind of meaningless
but it really seems like this team has lost its swagger. Especially Phil. Watching him play last night, it made me wonder what happened to the kid who went into Allen Fieldhouse as a true freshman and played like he was right at home, or the kid who was confident enough in his own abilities to try to dunk on LaceDarius Dunn.
I feel the same way about Ratliffe. Since that Baylor game, it’s like he’s lost all consistent aggressiveness.
I think part of it is that the bigs feel like they get penalized by the refs for aggressive play (which is not an unreasonable feeling to have), and Flip’s problems are probably ultimately just regression to the freshman mean.
Plus, even though Steve has apparently developed some offense, he’s regressed on defense from where he was last season, and he seemingly has to be the only available option for anyone on the team to pass him the ball in the paint.
I still think the ceiling for this group of players is sky-high. But it’s going to take more than just “not giving up” and “putting it all together.” This team has only looked like a Mike Anderson team in spurts. They’re going to have to do better than that. Share the ball. Play physical. Be aggressive, even when you make foolish mistakes as a result. And don’t ever, EVER listen to Doug Gottlieb or Bob Knight.
We all understand what being a Mizzou fan is like. That’s no excuse for being a douche.
by jaeger on Mar 11, 2011 10:00 AM CST reply actions 1 recs
Have to admit
Having a disappointing season result in a 10 or so seed in the NCAA tournament is kind of nice. I mean… we could be another team in Missouri and have our best season in freaking forever… and still not make it. Heh.
"People don't kill people. Burning oreo packages kill people."
Southwest Missouri State burn
"I have CDO. It's like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order. Like they should be."
I thought he was talking about Missouri State?
OH, RIGHT
"Smell the perfume but don't drink it because it might kill you." Erin Andrews recounting advise from Gary Pinkel
Well
despite the very disappointing loss last night I’ve recovered and am looking forward to the NCAA. Nobody likes to lose, especially in such horrible fashion as last night, but I’m not down on this team. If you’d said to me pre-season that we wouldn’t get Mitchell eligible and that Underwood would quit the team I would never have guessed we’d be ranked until the very last week of the season and I’d have been doubtful of going to the NCAA. Starting next week it’s a whole new day for the tourney and I’m as solidly behind this team and CMA as I was watching the non-con games. And after that I’ll be solidly behind the squad next year when we don’t have 40% of our rotation with zero D1 experience.
Wanted to get other folks thought on something.
I should preface this with I absolutely love CMA as our coach. Hope he retires at Mizzou. But does anyone else feel that he needs to fly off the handle at least every once in a while? He has pretty much shown it is not his style, flawless coat slinging aside. I would just like to see that he can do it. Every once in a while I think a tech for motivational purposes is necessary. I’m not suggesting that it would for sure change results, but I feel like it would be good to see a rant onto the floor up in the refs face a couple times a year…for both the players and fans. Has that thought crossed anyone else’s mind lately.
Maybe he does, but I'm not for it.
When you have a coach that doesn’t fly off the handle, each action done is more significant. I think the most angry I saw CMA was the last home game against kU, when Steve got dry humped to the ground and injured his leg. CMA flew out on to the court, checked on Steve, and then defiantly stayed on the court, berating the refs as they walked towards the bench. It got the point across so effectively without looking like a raging maniac. I understand that “picking your battles” can lead you to have no battles at all, but when/if CMA DOES explode for a T, think how amazingly effective, maybe even uncomfortable scary, that would be.
Flamboyent gesticulations and spit-inducing scream-fests aren’t the only signs of emotion. Sitting behind the bench at the MU/UT game, CMA’s emotion is saved for his players, calmly congratulating them or questioning their stupid decisions with an authority that I’ve only seen from grandparents. CMA’s “Fastest 40 Minutes” is shown in his coaching style, not his personality, and frankly, I like it that way. Much more respectable than a Frank Martin/Bob Huggins/Bo Ryan type.
I dunno man...hockey?
he sort of tried that last night
prior to the coat toss, looked like he was half-trying to get a T.
I think there may be a point there, but I refuse to believe you have to be a raging, screaming, whining type to succeed. And MA does get pissed, he just keeps it below a certain level.
To me, the players need to realize that THEY need to generate their own want-to and emotion. They are all high character, smart kids- which is absolutely what I want- but I think those traits also hurt in that they seem to think too much at times, and tend to have less emotion than some psuedo-student athlete thuggie type who has their ego tied completely to winning ball games and cares about nothing else. I don’t think those type of kids doubt themselves much, in part because they frankly don’t THINK much.
Again, I don’t want kids like that- I would be mortified, no matter how many wins it got us, to have a pair of dirty punks like the Morris twins on our team.
Fair Enough
I was just wondering what others thought. And I’m certainly not suggesting I want CMA to display the emotion a certain coach to the west displays. I actually get scared for his players, like he might uncork a right hook on one of them. I am still of the opinion that a rant is worthwhile in the right situation, as long as you don’t make a habit out of it. And I don’t feel like an occasional, bordering on out of control, outburst would cause CMA to lose the respect of the basketball community. I will say I didn’t get to see the KU game or his reaction to the play mentioned above, so that may have been just what I would like to see.
I will take a mature individual who knows how to control his emotions and treats his team like a family
over some immature blowhard that wins championships by breaking down his players’ individualities any day.
Elke ware zoon, zo blij van harte / Hemels boven ons zijn blauw / Er is een geest zo diep binnen ons / Oud Missouri dit is voor jou / Wanneer de band het Tijger oorlogslied speelt / En wanneer de strijd over is / We zullen stampen, stampen, stampen, rond de kolommen / Met een kreet voor oud Mizzou!
by Dutch Missourian on Mar 11, 2011 11:46 AM CST up reply actions
Regarding CMA's emotions
I don’t know if you’ve been going to the home games, but CMA can get really worked up at them, even with the jacket on. He yells at his players down the court, gets in refs faces, and all that. He just keeps it to a level where everyone knows he’s in charge, without resorting to looking like a douchebag.
Elke ware zoon, zo blij van harte / Hemels boven ons zijn blauw / Er is een geest zo diep binnen ons / Oud Missouri dit is voor jou / Wanneer de band het Tijger oorlogslied speelt / En wanneer de strijd over is / We zullen stampen, stampen, stampen, rond de kolommen / Met een kreet voor oud Mizzou!
by Dutch Missourian on Mar 11, 2011 11:49 AM CST up reply actions
Wanted to clear up my first comments.
I am not suggesting that he blows up at the players. I didn’t mean to imply that, and I would definitely be against that. I was speaking with regard only to the refs. I was reading the comments and realized that I did not make that clear. I have zero complaint about how he handles his players. I just wish he would get in a refs face every once in a while. And no, unfortunately I haven’t been able to attend a game in about 10 years. Only get to watch when they are on ESPN and some Big12 Network games which has been several over the last couple of years. I live in Arkansas, and it never seems to work out for me to get to a game.
Think about how many times . . .
. . . the last two years you saw JYD or Ramsey man the defensive point position on the full-court press, harrassing the other team all the way up court and then fall back into defending the post successfully. They seemed to be all over the court at times – and often.
Now think about how many times you have seen Safford, Ratliffe or Bowers do the same thing this year.
I think one of our major shortages in defense is that big man clogging up the middle of the floor from endline to endline with fierce defense. It just might be that at this time we do not have the personnel to fill that role. I would love to see CMA come up with a freshman or JC who could fill that role next year, regardless the loss in offense (of course it would be great if he could match JYD’s offensive skills and intensity as well).
Regarding CMA...
(who I totally support, btw)…
when it came time for the hiring, the two other names that everyone was all ga-ga for were Calipari and Huggins. Yet, if Missouri had hired either of these guys, they’d both be gone already.
Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky; would have done the same thing here. Also, didn’t he leave them in trouble with the NCAA?
Huggins left K-State for WVA (his alma mater); would have done the same thing here. Do you really want the death stare of Frank Martin in your face?
"When among evil companions, try to fit in." - Wild Bill Donovan
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