(Photo Credit Mark D. Smith- USA Today Sports)
The Missouri Tigers fell to 4-4 Friday night after dropping a road contest 82-63 to the #22 Oklahoma Sooners. Johnathan Williams III led the way for Missouri with 16 points, eight rebounds, and a pair of steals. Montaque Gill-Caesar pitched in with 15 points, six rebounds, and two steals, but it wouldn’t be enough in the end to stop the more fluid Sooner offense.
The Tigers jumped out to an early 9-3 lead in the first half, but Oklahoma kept pace going on a run of their own to take over the lead 16-15 on an Isaiah Cousins three-point jumper. Cousins would finish the game with 16 points and three assists.
Later in the half turnovers and missed chances allowed the Sooners to build a bit of a lead. Shooting continues to be a problem for the Tigers as they shot an inconsistent 42 percent from the floor making just 25 of their 59 shots.
Missouri only made two buckets following the under eight media timeout. Oklahoma on the other hand made six of its final 10 shots down the stretch to carry a 37-25 lead into half time.
Missouri’s shooting woes continued coming out of the break as they missed on their first seven attempts, while Oklahoma knocked down its first six shots of the second half. All of the sudden the Tigers found themselves in a deep hole down by 25.
The Tigers began to get the offense working later in the second, but by this point it was too late to mount a comeback. The Sooners continued to move the ball well as Ryan Spangler added 18 points on 7-8 shooting and five rebounds.
The Sooners finished the game shooting 57 percent from the floor and were +2 in turnover margin and +5 in fouls. Costly mistakes and inconsistent shooting continues to be the story for Missouri as they try to find a balanced play style.
There is certainly a learning curve for this new Tiger team, but they have be getting contributions from all of their players. They actually looked like they found a groove in the second half, but by that time it was too late. The Tigers need to play sound defense limiting the fouls and have to punch opponents in the mouth out of the gate with quality shooting.
The team needs to worry less about who’s taking the shots and just attack the rim, while minimizing the turnovers. The scores don’t do this team justice of what their potential could be. They play hard on the floor, but only in spurts. We haven’t seen a game yet where the Tigers play an all-around quality game from start to finish. Their wins have been mediocre at best and their losses are well-deserved.
With that being said, if they are able to figure things out and still believe that they can then this team has potential down the road. We’ve seen the flashes of talent from these guys, but they still don’t know how to play at the collegiate level. Unfortunately there isn’t a player on this team that can carry the load, while the other guys figure it out. Unlike Kentucky and Kansas these guys need to be coached along before they can show their talent at the collegiate level.
Kim Anderson is a great coach and can get the job done. I think this team can perform in the coming games, but I don’t everyone else has the same patience as I do. Everyone’s still upset over the disappointing end to last season and want a winning program right now, except that isn’t how it’s going to work.
So you can say Missouri is awful and will have a terrible season because that is the truth. Right now they’re 4-4 with losses to UMKC and Purdue and doesn’t look like there moving in a great direction.
However this team with time has the potential to turn the ship around. They have the talent; they have the coaching and now all they need is some time to figure it all out. Let’s cut the negativity and give them a chance.
The Tigers travel home next week in a matchup with Elon on Dec. 11. Tip off is set for 7 p.m.
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