Missouri Tigers plagued by lackluster offense in ugly 70-62 loss at Vanderbilt
Missouri looked dead in the water.
The Tigers had made poor decisions and missed three-pointer after three-pointer in Tuesday night’s game against Vanderbilt and were trailing by 11 points with a little over 10 minutes left. But then the offense suddenly came to life.
Mizzou made eight shots in a row and eventually regained the lead. But the Tigers fell apart down the stretch and ended up with a 70-62 defeat at Memorial Gymnasium.
The Tigers (9-14, 3-7 SEC) went back into a scoring drought at the point it mattered most, going without a bucket for nearly five minutes and also failing to get key stops as they allowed Vanderbilt (13-10, 5-6 SEC) an 11-1 run late.
“Once we regrouped, started attacking the rim and making plays and then shooting open threes off penetration and pop, we were much better,” Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “Gave ourselves a chance to win a game, didn’t close it out.”
Missouri forward Kobe Brown — who nearly single-handedly closed out the Tigers’ win at Texas A&M on Saturday — fouled out during that span, leaving Mizzou without its best player. And then with a minute left, so did Javon Pickett, who had been key to any semblance of offense the team had throughout the night.
The Tigers did prevent it from being a blowout, but bad decisions and poor shooting did them in on Tuesday night.
The Commodores entered the matchup with the best three-point defense in the SEC. They had held conference opponents to 28.2% shooting beyond the arc. Conversely, they allowed conference opponents to shoot 54.4% inside the arc, which ranks third-worst in the league.
With those statistics, it seems like the strategy would have been for the Tigers to drive the ball inside. Especially considering they aren’t a good three-point shooting team.
Instead, the Tigers resorted to some old woes on offense and settled for bad shots. They shot 25 of 61 (41%) from the field and 5 of 25 (20%) from deep in a mostly dismal offensive showing.
“In the beginning, we settled for a lot of jumpers,” Pickett said. “We just gotta continue to learn in that aspect, and we’ve got to start off the game going to the basket, being aggressive. We got to be the aggressor.”
Mizzou scored a mere .688 points per possession in the first half and entered the break in a 27-22 hole. MU continued to make the same mistakes against a stingy Vanderbilt defense, proving painful to watch at times.
“I’m not saying every (three-point attempt) was bad, but I thought we settled because it was comfortable,” Martin said. “It was comfort as opposed to making the next play, making the next move.”
The performance came after Missouri had vastly improved on that end of the floor in the prior two outings, making at least 50% of its shot attempts in consecutive contests for the first time all season. That went out the window Tuesday night.
Here are some key takeaways from the game.
Javon Pickett returns
After sitting out the last two games with a head injury suffered against Iowa State, Pickett was back in the lineup for Mizzou on Tuesday night.
Pickett didn’t start — the first time he hasn’t done so when available this season — but subbed in after the first media timeout and played 26 minutes before fouling out.
“At first, just had to catch my wind,” Pickett said. “But once I got back out there, I felt good. I just wanted to go out there and do whatever for the team.”
The senior guard’s presence made a noticeable difference for the Tigers early in the game. He made his first four shots from the field, taking some smart shots and displaying patience that nearly everyone else on the team was lacking.
Pickett finished with a team-high 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting, along with two rebounds and two steals.
Leading the way for Vanderbilt was guard Scotty Pippen Jr. The SEC’s best scorer finished with 19 points, four assists and three steals. He was one of five Commodores who scored at least 10 points.
Tigers can’t defend without fouling
Missouri committed a season-high 27 fouls against Vanderbilt.
As a result, the Commodores had 35 opportunities at the free-throw line. They made 24 of those shots. Most of them came in the second half.
Meanwhile, the Tigers got to the charity stripe only 12 times, making seven shots there.
“I don’t necessarily think the game was poorly officiated,” Martin said. “I don’t think that was the case at all.”
This isn’t just one game that this has been an issue. Mizzou has given its SEC opponents more chances at the free-throw line in all but three SEC contests. On average, the Tigers give up 22.5 free shots at the stripe a game in league play.
“Every possession down,” Martin said, “you have to be consistent, and you have to be focused.”
Points off turnovers
When Missouri’s offense got back into the game in the second half, it all started because of what happened on the defensive end.
The Tigers forced Vanderbilt to turn the ball over 15 times and scored 20 points off of those mistakes.
Usually Missouri is on the other side of that statistic. Still, the points off turnovers the Tigers got on Tuesday were not good enough for a win.
Another (somewhat) close game for the Tigers
Entering Tuesday night, Missouri’s last four conference games had been decided by a combined 16 points, including two losses by one-point.
The Tigers hadn’t been able to close out games, until a 70-66 victory at Texas A&M on Saturday.
And it was close enough on Tuesday. But once again, Missouri squad was not able to get it done when it mattered most.
“It’s just things that we gotta learn from,” Pickett said. “Our team is growing. We just got a lot of guys stepping up. So we’ll figure it out. Our coach is doing a great job with us. So we’ll figure it out.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 10:43 PM.
