Game 18: South Carolina

The reason why this Missouri team is probably not going to go places this year is because its defense just isn't capable of getting stops when it needs to.  South Carolina has a poor offense, yet was able to get some easy looks during crucial parts of the game and Missouri did not look good.  In addition, SC on three different occasions got three tries on the offensive end because they outhustled Mizzou in getting rebounds.  Great teams have good defenses so that when the shooting goes cold they can still get stops and stay in the game.  While Missouri came up with the victory, this was not a well played game by our Tigers.

Phil Pressey
Phil stunk.  He is in a terrible shooting slump and his shots aren't even close to going in.  His shooting woes have seemed to affect the rest of his game as he just hasn't looked like the great player that he is.  He definitely played better in the second half and made some nice plays late and I thought Haith did a good job of managing Phil's foul trouble.  4/10.

Jabari Brown
Brown had a rough game.  Lots of missed shots and turnovers.  He still plays aggressively but has very little lift when going at the goal and is easily blocked.  He hit the big shot at the end which was nice to see.  4/10.

Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi asserted himself early on and was a tough match-up for the smaller South Carolina team.  He knocked down his free throws and was grabbing boards.  He seemed to tire late in the game and allowed SC to get some boards and easy shots in close.  8/10.

Earnest Ross
Ross played with lots of energy, but continues to make so many fundamental errors and is just horrible when driving to the basket.  I found myself more frustrated with his play than any other Tiger as he just plays dumb on both ends of the floor.  I realize he scored some points, but his overall game is so weak.  He gets hung up on every screen when playing defense and frequently was to blame for SC getting multiple shots as he was out of position and failed to block out an outside shooter (for those of you who have been reading the Report all season should know I have been harping about this and tonight we saw instances where Ross' poor defense really hurt the Tigers).  Ross did hit a big shot at the end which gave Mizzou some breathing room in the last minute and he was one of two Tigers with double-doubles.  7/10.

Tony Criswell
Criswell struggled as well by getting outworked on the boards and playing very poor defense.  I felt like SC went at him late and seemed to score at will to make the end a lot more interesting than we would have liked.  2/10.

Overall Thoughts
Even without Bowers and Bell, Mizzou should have had an easy time with South Carolina at home.  This game is very concerning and it appears that there may be some distractions that are affecting the team's play.  I hope they can get it together and start playing better otherwise this season will be a huge disappointment.

Next up:  Vanderbilt on Saturday.