Overall Thoughts
Overall, I was pretty disappointed with the play of the team. I thought Mizzou played scared, tentative and overwhelmed to be playing an elite team. I was very confused with the coaching decisions made in this game and can only assume that either (a) Haith doesn't know what he is doing or (b) Haith knows exactly what he is doing and is willing to sacrifice November and December in hopes of reaping some dividends in February and March. Since the former does not seem to be the more logical choice, then surely the latter is what we saw this evening.
Unfortunately, this game highlighted what I've been alluding to all season and that is that Mizzou has two guys that are used to winning (Pressey and Oriakhi) and a bunch of players who have no idea what winning means. Bowers, Ross and Bell looked pathetic going up against elite competition and everyone else looked terrified (except for maybe NWC).
The other thing I have noticed with this team that has become the norm is the inexplicable inability to grab what should be easy rebounds and loose balls. I don't know if every player has bad hands or what, but time and time again there are loose balls that this team just can't seem to corral. Pressey is the only one who seems to be able to get a ball that is in his vicinity. Everyone else either doesn't give full effort or just doesn't have the ability.
Phil Pressey
Phil is a great player. Unfortunately, he is the only great player on this team. He carried Mizzou at points and was forced into having to do too much because NO ONE ELSE WOULD STEP UP. You can say all the bad things you want about him, but this team was a train wreck when he wasn't in the lineup. I completely agreed with him on the play where he zipped it to Ross and the ball went flying out of bounds. There was no defender on that side of the hoop and what did Ross do...went away from the basket and into the corner. Pressey had every right to be frustrated, while Ross continues to frustrate me. Grade: 6/10.
Laurence Bowers
There were numerous hints made that the loss of Bowers may have been a blessing in disguise last year and I'm worried that we may seem some confirmation of that when Mizzou goes up against good teams. He is not a consistent threat and is just terrible on the boards when it matters. Frankly, Bowers was horrible in this game. Grade: 1/10.
Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi played well, but was awful at the line. Grade: 6/10.
Negus Webster-Chan
Webster-Chan plays hard, and usually plays safe, but ultimately is not the type of player that is going to strike fear in the heart of an opponent. Grade: 4/10.
Earnest Ross
Ross has quickly gone from a player that I like to a player that I don't know what to think. He is not fundamentally sound at all in the way that he plays. He's not a great passer and has looked terrible on defense so far this season. He committed a number of no-nos in this game and overall just didn't do a lick against Louisville. Grade: 3/10.
Keion Bell
Bell looked better tonight than he did last night. He drove into the lane a couple of times and made some nice passes. He played much more in control. However, he still plays as if he could care less whether he wins or loses. Grade: 4/10.
Tony Criswell
Criswell has a nice shot, but is a poor ballhandler and is one of those guys who I was referencing earlier who seems to have trouble keeping the ball in his hands. He had a fairly decent stat line with 9 points, 7 boards, 2 assists and a block (but also 3 turnovers). Grade: 6/10.
Jankovic and Rosburg
Jankovic and Rosburg were overmatched and I have no idea why they got the minutes they did in this game. Grade: 3/10.
Coach Haith
I felt like Haith coached this game as if it was a scrimmage with no care as to whether Mizzou won or lost. I thought he used too much of his bench early on at crucial points when I didn't think he necessarily needed to and I thought sticking with the zone defense was horrible strategy even though Louisville is not a great outside shooting team. The zone defense was horrible because this team doesn't know how to play it. Bowers and Ross were especially bad on defense tonight. Louisville basically got to pick where they wanted to shoot their open shot, because ALL of their shots were WIDE OPEN. They bricked a lot of open shots early which kept Missouri in the game, but then they started to fall at the same time that Missouri unraveled and at that point, the game was over. But that zone defense was horrendous and I have no idea why Haith stuck with it for so long if he really had any desire to win that game. I hope it was a learning lesson and that the team can improve.
Next up: Virginia Commonwealth tomorrow (Saturday) at 6:00 PM CST.
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