Why Missouri basketball’s future looks brighter after Saturday’s win over Vanderbilt

With the shot clock winding down in the final minutes of Missouri’s 77-67 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday, Torrence Watson eagerly asked for the ball from Jordan Geist after the Commodores cut MU’s lead to six.

Geist finally relented, and the result was a 25-foot three by Watson that ultimately sealed the game for Missouri. It was also a passing of the torch from Geist, a senior, to Watson, a freshman.

Geist, a 6-foot-2 point guard has been Missouri’s leading scorer and saving grace, but next season that burden will be on other players. Missouri’s underclassmen seemed to get the message Saturday, with 57 of the Tigers’ 77 points being scored by freshmen and sophomores.

Watson tied a career-high with 12 points, fellow freshman Javon Pickett had 12 and sophomore Jeremiah Tilmon led MU with 19 points and eight rebounds.

“He’s a guy that we recruited to score the ball,” MU coach Cuonzo Martin said of Watson. “I think you’re starting to see some of that.”

Watson has admitted to struggling throughout the season, especially on defense, but seems to have turned a corner recently. He had 10 points in the first half in Wednesday’s loss at Auburn and has started to show more of his scoring arsenal that helped him average more than 30 points a game his senior season at Whitfield in St. Louis.

When he was preparing to enter MU over the summer, Watson knew he wouldn’t put up the same numbers in college that he did in Class 3 high school ball, but also didn’t expect to struggle the way he has.

In Saturday’s win, he had a pair of athletic layups that came from splitting a pair of defenders. Earlier in the season, Watson was only shooting corner threes out of comfort and not being as aggressive offensively.

He said while he’s had to learn how to play defense for a coach like Martin, his biggest hurdle on offense has been learning what is effective against Division I defenses.

“You got more athletic guys in the SEC,” Watson said. “The defense is good on every single team.”

Sophomore Mitchell Smith played 20 minutes and had a pair of impressive plays, finding Geist on a full-court heave for a three-point play and finishing under the basket on a layup where he was tightly guarded.

Freshman point guard Xavier Pinson had another strong game with nine points and zero turnovers in 17 minutes played. Saturday marked his second career start. Pinson has been one of Missouri’s biggest offenders with turnovers, a word Martin said he’s trying not to use anymore given MU’s problems with them.

But Pinson has played better after being benched early in conference play after Martin said he wanted him to have more of a defensive presence.

His teammates have taken notice.

“He’s being way more vocal, being more of a leader,” Tilmon said. “At first he wasn’t really like that. Now he’s trying to be more like Geist. Everyone’s listening to him.”

Martin considered Saturday’s win a sign of growth for his younger players, especially in a game in which Geist’s first basket came 25 minutes into the game.

He isn’t sure if Missouri would have been able to win a game earlier this season that required his newcomers to carry the team. But Saturday was encouraging since MU is going to need more from Watson, Pinson, Tilmon, etc. in the coming years.

“There’s so many unknowns,” Martin said. “They’re trying to find their way. This time of year they say you’re no longer freshman. You’ve seen the highs and lows and now its continuing to progress at what you’re doing.”