Mizzou Tigers basketball blown out at Arkansas in worst loss under Cuonzo Martin
Old habits die hard.
Missouri men’s basketball may have shown signs of life its last time out, but it was right back to slow starts and early deficits Wednesday night in a 87-43 loss to Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
The Tigers managed to upset then-No. 15 Alabama 92-86 last Saturday behind an impressive start and its best offensive showing of the year.
But that team was nowhere to be found against the Razorbacks (11-5, 1-3 SEC) as the Tigers (7-8, 1-2 SEC) suffered their worst defeat — 44 points — in Cuonzo Martin’s five seasons as Mizzou coach. MU lost by 37 points at Kansas earlier this season.
“Tough night,” Martin said. “I think it’s safe to say that I didn’t see that coming.”
Missouri has now lost six games by at least 20 points this season ... in just 15 games.
As has often been the case this season, the Tigers fell into a sizable hole early. Just a minute and a half into the game and they were already trailing 7-0, prompting Martin to call timeout.
But that didn’t do much to help. Five minutes in, Mizzou was down 18-3 as the Razorbacks made seven of their first nine shots from the floor.
“They had us on our heels from the start of the game,” Martin said. “We could never recover.”
Arkansas guard JD Notae, the SEC’s leading scorer, outdid the entire MU roster himself, recording nine points early and creating havoc on defense as well. He finished with 19 points.
“Notae did a good job of pressuring Boogie Coleman up the floor,” Martin said. “I think that was the biggest key because [Notae] did a good job of dictating the tempo, controlling the tempo, putting pressure on Boogie, and then it extended from Boogie to Kaleb [Brown] and Anton [Brookshire] where ... we couldn’t really flow into our offense.”
Missouri went seven minutes without putting up a point and went nearly nine minutes without hitting a shot from the field until forward Kobe Brown scored a layup. But by that point, with under nine minutes left in the first half, the Tigers were already down 20-plus points.
Mizzou trailed 49-15 at halftime. The Tigers made just three field goals and shot 12% from the floor in the first half.
This wasn’t even their lowest scoring half of the season, which says a lot. In November, Mizzou only had 14 points in a half at Liberty.
The second half was merely a formality as Arkansas could have won the game with its first-half points alone.
“They out-toughed us the whole night,” guard Javon Pickett said. “That’s really what happened.”
Missouri only made 14 of 48 (29.2%) shots and 2 of 16 (12.5%) three-pointers in the loss. Meanwhile, Arkansas shot 50% from the floor.
Here are some key takeaways from the game:
TURNOVER STRUGGLES
Entering Wednesday night, Arkansas had averaged 16.3 turnovers over its last three games, leading to 24.3 points per contest for its opponents.
A key going into this game was for Missouri to take advantage of that. Instead, the Tigers were turnover prone. Four of the team’s first nine possessions ended in turnovers.
The Tigers committed 11 turnovers in the first half, leading to 16 points for the Razorbacks. Meanwhile, Arkansas only had two turnovers, neither of which Missouri was able to capitalize on for points.
The self-inflicted errors continued in the second half. The Razorbacks had a field day with Missouri’s mistakes throughout the evening, throwing down slam dunks on fast breaks.
“That’s momentum for them,” Pickett said. “We’re on the road, so their crowd get into it. And so that just makes them feel more comfortable, feel better about themselves. That’s just an area we gotta continue to work on. We can’t make those mistakes, especially on the road.”
Missouri finished with 23 turnovers, leading to 26 points for Arkansas. The Razorbacks also had 17 points on fast break opportunities.
OFF NIGHT FOR KOBE BROWN
The Missouri offense has relied on Kobe Brown. So it’s not much of a surprise that as he had an off night on Wednesday, so did the team.
The junior forward was sensational in his last game, scoring a career-high 30 points while recording 13 rebounds and four assists in the win over the Crimson Tide, earning SEC player of the week honors.
But the junior forward was a completely different player at Arkansas.
Brown only took six shots in the first half, looking uncomfortable and unwilling to attack with the level of aggressiveness that has made him special for the Tigers this season. He made 2 of 6 shots in the first half, scoring four points and committing two turnovers.
“I thought a couple of times he had a shot and didn’t shoot it,” Martin said. “He had the opportunity to drive left, he didn’t take advantage of that left hand drive. Like late in the [first] half, I thought he could have drove left and made a play. He came back right and I think he lost the ball.”
The second half was more of the same for Brown as he was never able to get into a groove. He finished the game with six points on 3-of-11 shooting, along with six rebounds and three turnovers.
ROAD WOES CONTINUE
Missouri has struggled tremendously away from Mizzou Arena.
With Wednesday night’s loss, the Tigers are 0-4 in true road games this season. They’ve lost such contests by an average margin of 32.3 points.
“Oh, we just need to get better,” Martin said when asked about the team’s play on the road this season. “Need to get better, need to be able to handle pressure and continue to get better on both sides of the basketball.”
Mizzou has also played three games on neutral sites this year. Though it won one of those, an overtime comeback against SMU at the Jacksonville Classic in November, it lost in blowout fashion to Florida State in that same tournament and was easily knocked off by Illinois in the annual Braggin’ Rights Game in St. Louis in December.
The Tigers are 1-6 away from home. Those six losses have come by an average margin of 29.5 points.
This season has felt long gone for Missouri for well over a month now. Things certainly aren’t going to get any better if the team can’t even be competitive away from its own building.
“We got to put this one behind us,” Pickett said. “But we still got to learn from this though. We know it’s not gonna be easy going on the road in the SEC. When we play at home, we do a pretty good job. But like I said, when we’re on the road we just got to continue to play and have that momentum with each other.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 10:22 PM.
