Missouri Tigers basketball is getting an offensive spark from defensive stalwart
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- Robinson became MU’s main scorer in a 106-68 win, scoring 20 with four 3-pointers.
- He maintained defensive leadership, led team with 4 steals and disrupted passing lanes.
- The 2024-25 SEC All-Defensive Team member shifted from facilitator to scorer in this one.
Over the Mizzou men's basketball team's first two games, junior guard Anthony Robinson II has been a facilitator in ways that don't show up on the stat sheet.
On Sunday against VMI, Robinson stepped into a role that Tigers coach Dennis Gates has been waiting for him to fill: that of a scorer.
"He wasn't worried about offense," Gates said. "He was worried about, ‘What's going to get me on the court?' … He ended up sacrificing his offense."
Robinson showed what he looks like as a top scorer for the Tigers in Missouri’s 106-68 win over the Keydets. He was the second-highest scorer for Mizzou behind only senior Mark Mitchell. Robinson recorded 20 points, 12 from beyond the arc.
The Tigers experimented with Jayden Stone and T.O. Barrett leading the offense, leaving Robinson to shoot from the corner or top of the key instead of facilitating scoring opportunities off the dribble.
"(It's) just being more comfortable out there, not thinking about it, getting out of my head, just letting it go," Robinson said. "(There's) nothing else to it; just shoot the ball. What I've been told to do."
Robinson has scored eight and 15 points in his first two showings, respectively, and even with just a five-point increase in scoring, he showed a different kind of play Sunday. He transcended being just a playmaker to being the one making the plays.
Even with the standout offensive performance from Robinson, his defensive intensity didn't falter. Through the first half of the competition, the Tigers and Keydets were duking it out for the lead. VMI was trying to figure out how to score over the length of Mizzou's team while the Tigers were figuring out how to defend VMI's range.
Robinson stepped up as the only remaining member of the 2024-25 SEC All-Defensive Team and pestered the VMI offense, getting his hands in passing lanes and crashing the lane for rebounds.
His aggressive play up top set the tone for the Tigers' defense, and he led the team with four steals as guards Sebastian Mack, Barrett, and Stone followed the captain's example.
After beating SEMO in the season opener Nov. 3, Missouri remains undefeated heading into the Minnesota matchup at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Mizzou Arena.
Copyright 2025 Columbia Missourian
This story was originally published November 10, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Missouri Tigers basketball is getting an offensive spark from defensive stalwart."