What must Mizzou basketball do to win on the road? Tigers need to get over hump
The Missouri Tigers worked the deficit down to two and three points against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday. After whittling down what was a 10-point Hogs lead to a single possession, the Tigers looked poised to get over the hump.
But after the Hogs hit three straight three-pointers, the Tigers dropped their seventh SEC road game, 78-68.
The defeat was a similar performance for the Tigers away from Mizzou Arena. They came close to toppling their foe but came just short. It was a similar script to numerous road losses like at LSU, Alabama and in overtime to Xavier.
“It’s hard when you’re on the road,” Mizzou coach Cuonzo Martin said. “When we won the game at home (against Arkansas), we still had breakdowns. But there’s the comfort of being at home.”
Road games have been unforgiving for the Tigers (13-14, 5-9 SEC). They’re 1-9 overall and 0-7 in the SEC. At home, it’s been a different story. They’re 11-3 and 5-2 in SEC play at Mizzou Arena.
With the Tigers scrambling into position in the conference standings, the losses pile up. Stealing a road victory once or twice could boost them out of the cellar of the SEC.
Some of Mizzou’s worst performances this season came on the road. Blowouts to Mississippi State, South Carolina, Texas A&M and the second half of West Virginia all quickly got out of hand.
When the Tigers defeated Temple 64-54 for their lone road win of the season, it came just days after the historic upset loss to Charleston Southern. Mizzou showed mental toughness in grinding out Temple.
But it’s been a grind to repeat that performance over the past few months. Martin has said the Tigers need to “steal” a game on the road but they’ve been unable to do so.
“We just gotta remember that we’re a team that can and we have won on the road,” forward Reed Nikko said. “We just gotta get back to it. Try to get one out of the way.”
For the visiting team, there are the obvious obstacles to overcome: the crowd, the noise and the travel. Then there are also the subtle differences between the different routine or the home calls, though the Tigers are plenty foul prone.
The Tigers have shown they can get over the hump when playing at home. They didn’t flinch in a 20-point comeback victory over Georgia. They executed down the stretch late to defeat Mississippi and Arkansas in overtime. They led from nearly start to finish to beat Florida and Auburn.
Mizzou has shown it can play quality basketball — both home and away. But the Tigers come up short away from Columbia in the minuscule bounces that determine a game.
With regular season play wrapping up, Mizzou has two final chances to win an SEC road game. And they’re both winnable.
The Tigers first have an 8 p.m. Wednesday tipoff against Vanderbilt, the worst team record-wise in the conference. They also face Mississippi on March 4 in the penultimate game of the season. Their other two games are against Mississippi State (Feb. 29) and Alabama (March 7) at Mizzou Arena. Mix in a few wins and the Tigers could be looking at a run in the SEC Tournament and potentially an NIT berth.
“Road environment, it becomes more the mental focus, the concentration, the attention to detail,” Martin said. “We had a lot of breakdowns. The energy was there.”
Tilmon, Mark Smith nearing return
Both Jeremiah Tilmon (foot) and Mark Smith (lower back) are nearing their return from injury for Mizzou. Martin said on Tiger Talk on Monday that Tilmon is looking like he is “definitely” able to play against the Commodores. For Mark Smith, Martin said as long as the guard looked like he did on Monday, he should be good to go on Wednesday. Both went through practice on Monday.
Tilmon was available against the Hogs last Saturday, but Martin kept him out because he hadn’t gone through practice reps. Mark Smith has missed the past seven games because of a back injury.
This story was originally published February 24, 2020 at 1:55 PM.