Phil Pressey
Phil was solid on offense, but dreadful on defense. I thought he gambled too often (which did lead to 4 steals), but allowed his man (Vincent Williams) too many open looks and paths to the basket. Williams, as a result, had a career high by a significant margin (scoring 23 tonight when his previous best was 14 earlier this year). 4/10.
Jabari Brown
Brown was limited in the first half as he picked up two quick fouls guarding Georgia's star, Caldwell-Pope. I thought Brown had a nice game and I was especially pleased when he drove the baseline on three consecutive possessions, scoring on one of those drives and getting to the free throw line on the other two. If he can continue to drive with the basketball, that will help free up his outside shot. While he guarded Caldwell-Pope, I thought he did a good job of making him work for his shots. 7/10.
Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi was pretty solid and did a great job on the offensive boards in the first half. He was not as active in the second half and I felt like he got out-hustled a couple of times when Georgia was able to gather a couple of offensive rebounds right over him. But anytime Alex goes 5-5 from the field and 3-4 from the line, that's a nice outing. Perhaps more importantly though was that Alex kicked the ball out twice in this game after getting it down low, with both kick-outs resulting in made 3-pointers. 8/10.
Earnest Ross
Ross started off shaky, missing his first three shots and then caught fire and was very active at driving to the hoop. Of course, he almost died on three different occasions in this game, so who knows if he'll be healthy by Saturday. 7/10.
Keion Bell
Bell handled the back-up point guard duties and did an admirable job. He, like Pressey, gambled a bit too much on defense though for my liking. Tonight marked the end of the NWC experiment. 7/10.
Tony Criswell
Criswell is fun to watch. He brings a lot of energy to the lineup, though he's still a little raw. He was back to being active on the boards and knocked down a few shots against Georgia's zone. 6/10.
Stefan Jankovic
Jankovic likes to shoot and foul. He did both at a fairly nice clip tonight. 5/10.
Overall Thoughts
Georgia played a zone for the entire game and I thought Missouri showed nice patience in trying to find holes. Missouri utilized the weave quite a bit and this worked nicely on a number of occasions, as Pressey eventually would make a quick move at top getting through the first wave of defenders allowing for nice passing lanes to a cutting wing player. Pressey had nice assists to Criswell, Ross, Brown and Oriakhi off of this play when going against the zone. Missouri countered with some zone of its own which I thought had mixed results. Missouri really needs to continue attacking inside as they go through periods where they don't force the action. For example, in tonight's game from the 16:13 mark of the first half to the 15:10 mark of the second half, Georgia had one foul called on them....1 foul in over 20 minutes of game time. That is unbelievable! But what makes this worth mentioning is that we have seen similar periods in games against UCLA and Bucknell this year. For whatever reason, Missouri has not done a good job of drawing fouls or getting the calls...I'll let you decide.
Next up: Florida on Saturday. I don't think it will be pretty.
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