Missouri seeks offseason momentum, offensive production at SEC tourney

It’s been a long and trying season for Missouri basketball — and its fan base — in the first year under Kim Anderson, but Wednesday offers something of a reset.

Barring a miraculous run to the SEC Tournament championship, the Tigers’ season will end sometime this week at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.

Still, the conference tourney offers a chance for Missouri to enter a critical offseason with something positive upon which to hang its hat.

“We talked a little bit about 0-0 again,” Anderson said. “Obviously, the competition will be very challenging, but I think it is refreshing with the idea of, hey, you’re going in and have a chance to build some momentum to end the season or extend the season and maybe build some confidence going into the offseason and into next year.”

Missouri, 9-22 overall and 3-15 in the SEC, won two of its final four games after enduring a 13-game losing skid, which set a program record for futility.

The Tigers, who are the No. 14 seed, drew South Carolina, 15-15 overall and 6-12 in the conference, in the opening round. Tipoff is around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and the game will air on the SEC Network.

Establishing some offense will be critical for Missouri’s upset bid.

During the last eight games away from Mizzou Arena, the Tigers have averaged 50.6 points per game and scored more than 60 points only once, which could prove to be a tall order against the physical Gamecocks.

“It’s a tough team to get it going …” Anderson said. “I think they do a great job of getting up in you, getting after you, putting pressure on you in the half-court, making it difficult for you to execute.”

Anderson said Missouri did not do a great job countering that pressure in a 65-60 loss Feb. 10 at South Carolina.

The Tigers lost sophomore guard Wes Clark for the season to a dislocated elbow during the second half against the Gamecocks, depleting an already thin group of ball-handlers.

Missouri has had seven games to adjust since the last meeting, but finding ways to alleviate South Carolina’s pressure remains a priority.

“We have to do a better job of helping each other get open,” Anderson said. “We have to try to relieve some of the pressure that (senior guard) Keith (Shamburger) will feel, especially in the half-court. As I went back and watched the game against South Carolina, it turned out to be a lot of dribbling. We dribbled around a lot and we set some ball screens, but we weren’t as effective as we needed to be. … A real key to the game is, can we attack against them?”

Spacing, timing and execution have been lacking throughout the season, but creativity also had been absent from Missouri’s offense.

“The plays don’t always work,” Anderson said. “You call a set, you run something and they don’t always work — not just for Missouri, but for a lot of teams. Then it comes down to making plays.

“In order to do that, kind of a basketball IQ type thing, can we play without the basketball? Where do we need to go and stuff like that? That’s been a challenge for this team. … I think our defense has been better. It’s our offense that’s struggled, and that’s no big secret. We’ve just been challenged to get good shots and to make shots.”

This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Missouri seeks offseason momentum, offensive production at SEC tourney."