Mizzou has survived loss of Porter but must fix these things to make NCAA Tournament

Despite Missouri’s loss at Texas A&M on Saturday, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi still has the Tigers going to the Big Dance for the first time since 2013 in his latest NCAA Tournament projections released Monday morning.

Lunardi has Missouri as a No. 10 seed playing against Rhode Island in Nashville, Tenn.

Despite Missouri’s ability to contend for an NCAA berth with the absence of Michael Porter Jr., the Tigers are far from a lock while playing in a much tougher Southeastern Conference than in years past.

With Missouri 13-6 with the season a little more than half over, here’s where the Tigers stand on both ends of the court.

Offense

The good: The offense was originally built around Porter and the Tigers have turned into a heavy three-point shooting team. And it has worked for the most part. Missouri is ranked No. 33, according to KenPom.com, in three-point field-goal percentage and among the top four in the SEC in three-pointers made. Graduate transfer Kassius Robertson is a three-point specialist and the team’s leading scorer and leader with fellow senior Jordan Barnett right beside him. Missouri has also been able to get points from the free-throw line when the offense is stagnant, which has kept them in games such as the Tigers’ upset win over Tennessee. At times, Missouri has been able to utilize post players such as freshmen Jontay Porter and Jeremiah Tilmon when the threes aren’t falling.

The bad: Without Porter Jr., there is no go-to scorer who can carry the offense when others are struggling. Barnett said Tilmon should have gotten more touches on offense when he started to heat up in the second half and Missouri was struggling to score. While the Tigers have been in games despite multiple players struggling on offense, Porter Jr.’s absence was really felt at A&M.

The ugly: Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. Missouri has had 20 or more against Stephen F. Austin, Illinois and West Virginia, which either press or force a lot of defensive pressure. Not all of those games were losses, but they were all close. Missouri had fewer than 10 turnovers in its recent wins over Tennessee and Georgia, which shows a bit of a pattern. Keep the turnovers down and Missouri should have a good chance to win.

Defense

The good: All around, they’ve defended pretty well. KenPom ranks Missouri No. 19 in three-point defense and the Tigers held Tennessee to 23.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc. The Vols came into that game shooting nearly 40 percent from deep, just like Missouri. The Tigers have also defended well inside, with help from Tilmon and Jontay Porter. KenPom has Missouri ranked No. 32 in two-point field-goal percentage defense.

The bad: Consistency. Missouri did a great job defending Georgia star Yante Maten, who is one of the best post players in the conference, but didn’t do much against Texas A&M’s loaded froncourt. The Aggies’ trio of D.J. Hogg, Robert Williams and Tyler Davis all had big games Saturday. Auburn, MU’s opponent Wednesday, is more of a guard-oriented team.

The ugly: Foul trouble. You can make a case for this on both ends of the court, but Missouri has had plenty of fouls on the defensive end that have come back to bite them. While Tilmon has struggled with foul trouble the entire season, Porter has made some bad decisions that led to the opposing team shooting free throws or getting an extra possession. Cutting down on the bad fouls will keep Tilmon and Porter on the floor more and allow Missouri to run more offense through the paint.

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Mizzou has survived loss of Porter but must fix these things to make NCAA Tournament."