Takeaways from Missouri’s loss to Alabama: Jordan Geist, Jeremiah Tilmon and more

Missouri dropped its third consecutive Southeastern Conference basketball game on Wednesday night, a 70-60 loss to Alabama. The Crimson Tide gave Missouri multiple chances to get back into the game, but the Tigers could never close the gap.

Here are five takeaways from MU’s loss:

Shelve the postseason talk for now

Maybe this team has a run that gets them back in the NIT discussion, but for now it’s tough to see Missouri playing beyond the SEC Tournament in March. At one point, Mizzou looked like a team that was NIT-bound at minimum and could maybe flirt with the NCAA Tournament. Not anymore.

Tilmon takes a step forward

Jeremiah Tilmon, Mizzou’s 6-foot-10 sophomore center, did a good job of avoiding foul trouble for most of the game and played 27 minutes, his most since the Braggin’ Rights game Dec. 22. He had eight points and seven rebounds but was very timid on defense.

At times, Tilmon looked like he was going through airport security rather than defensive rotations, playing with his hands up and not moving out of fear of picking up another foul. Tilmon tried to take himself out of the game at one point, according to coach Cuonzo Martin, but he wasn’t having it.

Tilmon did a good job of playing with two fouls when Martin had him in, but the officials are in his head. Getting rid of that fear is his next step.

Geist guarded differently

Avery Johnson praised Tigers junior guard Jordan Geist in his postgame news conference, but may have hinted at the solution to containing him to nine points in 33 minutes. Johnson guarded Geist with 6-foot-7 freshman guard Herbert Jones, who is five inches taller. Jones made it hard for Geist to get his shot off, holding him scoreless in the first half.

Geist has played a lot of minutes for this team, which plays a part in his recent struggles. Other players have to help him out and Martin has to find other ways for him to score.

Pickett continues to impress

Javon Pickett is averaging 17 points over his last two games and appears to be Missouri’s best shot at an SEC all-freshman representative. He continues to score on putbacks and layups while mixing in some threes when he can. The 6-foot-4 guard has been the most pleasant surprise on this team and has a work ethic that Martin thinks makes him destined to be great. After meeting with reporters last night, Pickett walked back out to the arena floor and spent the next half hour going over plays with Geist.

Tigers can’t stay out of their own way

Missouri had just 11 turnovers against Alabama, which is good by the Tigers’ standards. But the team is just careless with the ball. All 11 turnovers came on boneheaded plays that could have easily been avoided. Some of this comes with a young team, but MU doesn’t have the margin for error to get away with stuff like that.