MU’s Kim Anderson trims bench against Texas A&M

Since the beginning of the season, Missouri coach Kim Anderson has talked about the difficulty of playing 11 guys.

He’s reiterated several times as the season continued that he wanted to shorten the Tigers’ rotation.

In a 66-53 loss to No. 10 Texas A&M on Saturday, Anderson finally did just that, electing not to use sophomore guard Tramaine Isabell or sophomore forward D’Angelo Allen.

“It was just a coach’s decision … ,” Anderson said. “Both were available.”

Isabell had played in every game this season, averaging 16.1 minutes, while Allen had played in 15 of 18 games and logged double-digit minutes in the Tigers’ last four contests.

Asked if the trend of playing a trimmed-down, nine-man rotation will continue, Anderson said, “I don’t know. We’ll see how practice goes.”

By the numbers

17.6: Freshman Cullen VanLeer’s three-point shooting percentage in SEC play — 3 of 17 overall — after connecting at 37.0 percent in non-conference action.

36.1: Texas A&M’s shooting percentage, which tied for the third-lowest of the season behind Mississippi State (30.6), Arizona State (31.1) and matching Florida.

45-40: Rebounding edge for Missouri, which dropped to 7-2 when winning on the boards this season.

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 6:58 PM with the headline "MU’s Kim Anderson trims bench against Texas A&M."