Mizzou faces season’s toughest test at No. 10 Texas A&M
Missouri faces arguably its most daunting task of the season Saturday at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.
No. 10 Texas A&M, which is 16-2 overall and the lone remaining unbeaten team in Southeastern Conference play at 6-0, awaits a Tigers squad that has dropped 23 straight games away from home against NCAA Division I competition and 19 consecutive road games, including 17 in a row in conference.
The Aggies are a veteran squad, leading the SEC in defense at 64.3 points per game and turnover margin at plus-3.7.
Shooting guards Jalen Jones and Danuel House, both seniors, are among the conference’s top scorers, while senior point guards Alex Caruso and Anthony Collins are both among the SEC’s leaders in assists.
“They are so balanced and have so many different weapons.” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said. “At this point, I think they’re the team playing the best (in the SEC) and certainly have a lot of great ingredients.”
Meanwhile, the Tigers remain a team in search of an identity.
Missouri, 8-10 overall and 1-4 in the SEC, spotted Georgia and South Carolina leads of at least eight points in the opening minutes of its two previous conference road games, and it continues to be plagued by prolonged scoring droughts.
The Tigers had four separate stretches of at least four minutes without a point on Wednesday in a 60-57 loss against the Bulldogs at Mizzou Arena.
“When you need a bucket, you’ve got to be able to execute,” Anderson said. “We couldn’t do that. … I thought we panicked (against Georgia). I thought we tried to take the ball to the basket too much. … We ran the same stuff, but they stopped it and we didn’t adjust. That’s been a problem for us ... having that guy that can take the basketball and either create something for himself or create something for somebody else.”
Execution is an area Texas A&M flourishes, ranking 33rd in the nation at 1.100 points per possession. Missouri ranks 229th at 0.981, a reflection of the team’s youth and struggles to score the ball consistently.
“With this team, we don’t have that one guy who can just go and get it for us, so we have to play as a team,” Missouri freshman guard Terrence Phillips said. “When we get in those scoring droughts, we’ve got to stay together and we’ve got to execute on offense.”
The Tigers’ struggles were particularly acute late against Georgia when the Missouri struggled to get good shots and bricked free throws in the closing seconds of a tight ballgame.
“Good teams, good players figure it out … down the stretch,” said sophomore Namon Wright, who went 1 of 3 at the line after getting fouled on a three-pointer with 17 seconds remaining in a five-point game. “That’s what we have to grow in and, getting older, that’s what we have to do.”
The Tigers also are fighting history at A&M.
Missouri has only won seven games on the road against top-10 opponents since The Associated Press poll debuted for the 1949-50 season.
The Tigers’ last road win against a top-10 opponent was Jan. 21, 2012, at then-No. 3 Baylor. Of course, that Missouri team — former coach Frank Haith’s first — was ranked fifth in the nation.
Before that, you have to go back to Feb. 13, 1990 — a 77-71 upset against then-No. 1 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse — to find another road win against a top-10 team for the Tigers.
Missouri was ranked No. 2 in that meeting. The last time an unranked Tigers team pulled an upset on the road against a top-10 squad was 28 years ago — Feb. 13, 1988, at then-No. 7 UNLV, an 81-79 win that propelled Missouri into the national poll.
Tod Palmer: 816-234-4389, @todpalmer
This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Mizzou faces season’s toughest test at No. 10 Texas A&M."