Nicholls State came into this game having played only one other game, losing to Vanderbilt by 15 last weekend. My hope/expectation was to see a convincing Missouri win (by 30 points) highlighted by another dominating performance on the glass. Alas, it was not to be. Mizzou started the game looking great on defense and awful on offense. There were just so many wasted possessions early in the game which I hope to see cleaned up once the competition gets better (next game!). Then in the second half they had numerous defensive breakdowns while looking a little better on offense. As will be my practice from now on, I'll go from best to worst.
Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi was a great defensive presence in this game. When he was in the game, Nicholls State really had trouble scoring. As soon as he went out, Nicholls State would make a run. He is as important to Mizzou's defense as Phil is to the offense. However, he still misses too many point blank shots. Twice he had the ball right at the rim and just hoisted it right over the rim missing the goal entirely. Very perplexing. Nice to see him knock down his free throws though. Grade: 7/10.
Earnest Ross
Ross had a nice first half and was really the only guy knocking down shots as the rest of the team was throwing the ball away. But he looked pretty sloppy in the second half as well. Grade: 6/10.
Phil Pressey
Phil seemed like a non-factor in this game other than the fact that when he was not in the game the offense really bogged down. Grade: 5/10.
Laurence Bowers
Bowers just can't get anything going in the first half of games. He looked pretty bad on both ends of the floor during the first period. He scored some buckets in the second half, but continue to look poor on defense as the Nicholls State bruiser seemed to out-muscle and out-quick Bowers on numerous occasions. Grade: 4/10.
Keion Bell
Bell just doesn't seem to have what it takes. He ended three early possessions with a brick from 3 and two turnovers. He seems so slow and so far has proven to be a very inefficient player on offense. I also caught him napping on a couple of plays where he was sitting in the corner and neither went for the offensive rebound nor got back to defend when a shot went up (see photo sequence below). His fundamentals just aren't there. I've seen enough of Bell to formulate an early opinion that he is not going to be one of the key players on this team. I did like his defense in the second half when he grabbed some steals and got in the passing lanes. Grade: 4/10.
Tony Criswell
Criswell needs to use his body and start making shots inside rather than settling for outside jump shots which have not been going down for him thus far in the season. He's not looking as impressive now as he was early on. Grade: 4/10.
Negus Webster-Chan
Webster-Chan neither helped nor hurt the team in this game. I think his minutes are going to go down significantly in the Bahamas tournament as Mizzou will want Pressey playing as much as possible. Grade: 3/10.
Stefan Jankovic
Jankovic came back down to earth and unfortunately looked completely out of control in his few minutes in the game. When you have one of the nation's best point guards, you let him run the break. Grade: 2/10.
Ryan Rosburg
Nicholls State scored on almost every possession that Rosburg was in the game by either going right at him or getting an easy rebound where he should have been. Grade: 2/10.
Overall Thoughts
I apologize for the negative tone of this edition of the Report, but I was very disappointed in the team's performance tonight. Poor execution and fundamentals were on display as Mizzou made Nicholls State look a lot better than they really are. I expect the rotation to tighten up considerably when facing Stanford as I have to think that Haith will want Pressey and Oriakhi on the floor as much as possible as those two are very key to Mizzou's success. Hopefully, it was a good learning experience while still getting a win. It will be interesting to see how these guys do next week against much better competition.
Next up: Stanford on Thanksgiving Day at Noon.
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