Mizzou Tigers basketball run off Allen Fieldhouse court in 102-65 loss to No. 8 Kansas
The Missouri Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball teams met Saturday for the first time in nearly a decade, renewing a rivalry that had gone dormant with the former’s move to the Southeastern Conference.
The last games these two teams played in 2012 were the stuff of basketball lore, two extremely close, edge-of-your-seat affairs with all sorts of stakes on the line.
It was clear this time around, with Mizzou barely above .500 and Kansas ranked No. 8 in the country, that this one wouldn’t be as tight. And Saturday’s game certainly wasn’t anything close to competitive as Missouri (5-5) lost 102-65 to the Jayhawks (8-1).
“We just lost the game, in my opinion,” Mizzou coach Cuonzo Martin said. “And we lost to a good team. We learn from it and move forward.”
Here are takeaways from the Tigers’ performance.
Swallowed by The Phog
With Saturday’s loss, Missouri’s record at Phog Allen Fieldhouse moves to 14-43.
The Tigers have now lost 14 consecutive meetings in Lawrence.
The teams’ previous game in this building was an overtime loss for the Tigers that came down to the buzzer. Saturday’s 37-point defeat was an embarrassing showing for Mizzou, its worst loss to KU since 1977: a 96-49 KU win in Kansas City.
That 1977 game was the largest margin of defeat for Missouri in the series all-time. The second was a 98-54 loss on Feb. 15, 1966. Saturday was the third worst, in the 269th meeting.
When asked about the current state of the new era of the Missouri-Kansas rivalry following such a disappointing performance from his team, Martin simply responded, “I guess if you’re keeping the score, it’s 1-0. That’s it.”
A lackluster defensive performance
The Missouri offense has often been hard to watch at the start of games as it’s struggled to get any points on the board in the opening minutes this season. But that wasn’t the case on Saturday.
The Tigers didn’t open the game as slow offensively as they often had in previous games, but Kansas was just too hot. The Jayhawks made 8 of their first 11 shots from the field, compared to 5 of 12 for the Tigers. By the under-12 timeout, the deficit had already ballooned to 12 points, 23-11.
Mizzou was also burdened by foul trouble in the first half as it couldn’t seem to guard without using contact.
After trailing by double digits early, the Tigers brought the contest to as close as 28-21 with a little under nine minutes left in the first half, but then forward Kobe Brown got his second foul and sat the rest of the way.
“It was definitely, it was a little frustrating,” Brown said. “I know I was mad at myself more than anything. But I believe in my teammates, and when I came out I knew I had good faith in them that they would continue to compete without me. But I was just hoping to get back as soon as possible.”
With Brown on the bench, the Jayhawks went on a 21-6 run and entered halftime up 49-27. From there, the game was never close.
“It’s tough from a standpoint, a lot of things can flow through him,” Martin said about Brown. “Whether he’s scoring the ball or not, you flow through him and you can move the ball. Because what makes him good is not necessarily how many shots he takes, it’s the other things that he does. He rebounds the ball, he can get other guys shots and opportunities.”
Missouri guard DaJuan Gordon had three fouls and center Jordan Wilmore had two in the first 20 minutes. Eleven of the Jayhawks’ points in the half came at the free-throw line and they finished with 22.
Kansas made 33 of 59 (55.9%) shots from the field on the afternoon. They also made 14 three-pointers on a 51.9% clip and scored 23 fastbreak points as Missouri couldn’t keep up defensively.
“Well, the game plan, of course, was ... you want to build a wall defensively, force those guys to make contested threes. They got out in transition, so we didn’t contest as well,” Martin said. “We needed to do a better job in contesting those threes, especially with [Ochai] Agbaji.”
Agbaji finished the game with 21 points, including five three-pointers on 71.4% shooting.
No chance in the second half
Mizzou entered the second frame trailing Kansas by 22 points. But the deficit was about to get much, much steeper.
The Jayhawks scored on their first seven possessions of the half and had outscored the Tigers 11-2 by the first under-16 media timeout.
Missouri trailed by as many as 41 points as it was run off the floor by its former Big 12 foe. The Tigers were outscored 53-38 in the second half and suffered one of their worst defeats ever against the Jayhawks.
Javon Pickett leads the way
Javon Pickett was electric in Missouri’s first game of the season against Central Michigan, recording 18 points. It looked like this could be the year the senior stepped into a bigger role as one of a precious few returning players.
But Pickett had been somewhat quiet since. He averaged 7 points in the following eight games, reaching double-digits just twice.
The Belleville, Illinois, native was back in his zone for the biggest game of the season. He scored seven of the Tigers’ first 11 points Saturday, including the first bucket of the game on a three-pointer — his first make from deep in three games.
“Our coaches, they just was telling us that we gotta go out there and play aggressive, play strong,” Pickett said. “I feel like in the beginning everybody wanted to go out there and win. I don’t know, it was a lot of people there, you know, just want to go out there and put on a show, go out there and compete and win.”
Pickett scored 13 points in his first 14 minutes. And by halftime, he was at 15 on 6-of-8 shooting.
Though the Tigers were overwhelmed by the Jayhawks in the second half, Pickett finished with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting, plus three rebounds and two assists.
“Obviously didn’t come out with a victory, but just wanted to go out there and compete,” Pickett said.
This story was originally published December 11, 2021 at 4:56 PM.
