Between scoring and turnovers, how does Missouri feel entering the Paradise Jam?
When Missouri lost star sophomore Jontay Porter to a torn ACL and MCL, fellow big man Jeremiah Tilmon became the next logical option for the team to run offense through.
But in order to get the most out of Tilmon, he has to stay out of foul trouble and be aggressive every minute he’s on the floor.
Missouri got both of those out of Tilmon in its season-opening win over Central Arkansas. The 6-foot-11 sophomore scored 16 points with five rebounds and didn’t hear a whistle until later in the second half.
Tilmon logged 24 minutes in the Tigers’ next game, a blowout loss at Iowa State, but only scored five points on four shots.
Now as Missouri heads to the Virgin Islands to play in the Paradise Jam tournament, the Tigers need Tilmon to start checking both boxes if they want to be a competent offense.
“Now that he’s being scouted he’s seeing a lot more doubles now,” senior Kevin Puryear said. “As far as one-on-ones if you guard Jeremiah one-on-one in the post he’s going to score on you everyday. But now he’s going better out of the traps and he’s passes really well out of them.”
Missouri threw the ball to Tilmon a lot in Ames only to have him throw it back out when he didn’t see anything he liked. The result was the East St. Louis Illi. native committing a team-high five turnovers that snowballed into the 25 MU turnovers the Tigers had against ISU.
The Tigers start tournament play on Friday with a 2 p.m. matchup against Kennesaw State (streamed live on FloHoops), with the winner facing either Oregon State or Old Dominion. With teams like Penn and Eastern Kentucky on the other side of the bracket, the Tigers would face No. 12 Kansas State in the finals on Monday should both teams win their first two games.
Tigers coach Cuonzo Martin said the tournament is a good test for his team because it will be the first time MU is playing teams on short notice. Martin said the Tigers’ issues against Iowa State were self-inflicted and thought the defense broke down because of offensive struggles.
“I thought a lot of things we could have corrected,” he said. “(Twenty five) turnovers, 26 fouls, it’s hard to win games. You get highs, we were up 19-14. We didn’t flow like we needed to. We didn’t push the ball in transition.”
Martin has a long-standing relationship with Wildcats coach Bruce Weber, who coached him as an assistant at Purdue during Martin’s college years.
Instead of looking ahead, Martin talked about Kennesaw State, which poses a different challenge for Missouri with its offensive style. Owls coach Al Skinner was the coach at Boston College for 13 years and led the Eagles to multiple NCAA Tournaments and a Sweet 16 berth in 2006.
Skinner’s teams like to take their time on offense and thrive on ball movement.
“(He’s) had a tremendous amount of success with that offense,” Martin said. “They’re physical with it. They put you to sleep around the rim and then all of the sudden they’re making a three-point shot.”
Alex Schiffer
Alex Schiffer covers University of Missouri athletics for The Star.
