Javon Pickett and Kobe Brown show leadership in Mizzou Tigers’ season-opening win
With a little over three minutes left in its season opener Tuesday night against Central Michigan, Missouri’s 19-point advantage had shrunk to two.
The Tigers needed to find a way to pad the lead. Standing at the tip of the Tiger logo beyond the top of the arc, guard Jarron “Boogie” Coleman passed to Javon Pickett on the left wing. Two Central Michigan defenders collapsed on the senior guard, so he whipped the ball back to Coleman, creating a small gap of space for himself as they retreated.
In a matter of seconds the ball was right back in Pickett’s hands. He immediately let it rip, knocking down a three-pointer. The play, combined with four made free-throws from Kobe Brown, sparked a 7-0 run for Mizzou en route to its 78-68 victory over the Chippewas.
The only returning players who saw consistent minutes for coach Cuonzo Martin last season, Pickett and Brown, played crucial roles for the Tigers in the win, especially down the stretch.
“Javon was great. His leadership was raised, but it’s been that way since June,” Martin said. “I thought Kobe struggled from a standpoint of flow, the flow of the game, but I thought he stepped up late.”
Pickett led all Mizzou scorers with 18 points on a career-high eight field goals (57.1% shooting), and he also recorded five rebounds, three assists and three steals, which tied a career high. Brown scored nine of his 10 points in the second half and finished with nine rebounds and two assists.
The first points of the 2021-22 season came on a bucket from Pickett and he got hot early, scoring 13 points to allow the Tigers to take a 45-29 lead at halftime.
Central Michigan went on a 21-6 run out of the break to make it a close affair, which Pickett was not pleased with.
“He was getting on us, like, ‘We gotta lock up, get stops. We can’t let them get back in the game,’” said Mizzou guard Amari Davis, a transfer from Green Bay. “Like, just throughout the whole game, even in the locker room at halftime, before the game, just giving us energy.”
Prior to combining with Pickett for the big run late, Brown had been stuck on the bench for over 10 minutes of game time with four fouls.
“Do what you do best,” Coleman recalled telling Brown when he was subbed back in with 4:53 left. “Just make plays down the stretch and put the game away.”
Brown did just that. He scored a fast break layup a little over 20 seconds later and then made several clutch shots at the charity stripe in a matter of a few minutes to help aid the scoring run.
With 2:27 left in the game and Missouri up 69-62 following two made free-throws from Brown, Pickett outstretched his left hand and stripped the ball from Central Michigan’s Miroslav Stafl just outside of the paint on defense. Though the play eventually went out of bounds on the other end, the Tigers got the ball back. And on the ensuing possession, Brown backed down his defender in the paint and drew a foul to put up more easy points at the free-throw line.
“He came in and gave us a big spark at the end,” Coleman said.
The lead seemed safe at that point, with the Tigers holding onto a 71-62 advantage, but sure enough, the Chippewas fought their way back into the game. Jermaine Jackson Jr. drained his fifth triple of the night to bring the affair within four with 1:14 left.
Once again, it was up to one of the two returnees to make a play, this time coming from Brown as he soared in for a put-back bucket to extend the lead back to six. And just for safe measure, Pickett tacked on another steal a few plays later, allowing the Tigers to run out the clock with 13 seconds left.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about this Mizzou team and finding the right chemistry will continue to be a work in progress as players learn to mesh. The win certainly wasn’t pretty by any means.
But here’s one thing we definitely did learn Tuesday night: Pickett and Brown are more than capable of providing veteran leadership at the moments it’s most needed.
Shaw, Jones make it official
Four-star forward Aidan Shaw of Blue Valley High and guard Christian Jones have signed their national letters of intent.
The 6-foot-8 Shaw is the highest-ranked recruit for the program since 2017, when the Tigers added Michael Porter Jr., Jontay Porter and Jeremiah Tilmon in Martin’s first season. Shaw is rated No. 52 overall and the third-best player in Kansas, according to the 247 Sports Composite.
Jones, a 6-4 combo guard out of East St. Louis High, committed to Mizzou as the first player in the 2022 class in July. Shaw and Jones are the only scholarship players on board so far for the Tigers’ class.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 10:10 AM.
