Deja vu.
What a horrible ending to the season. Inconsistent all year, Missouri proves that it cannot get out of its own way and just falls flat on its face in what I considered to be a pretty important game. There is no point in providing individual breakdowns in this game since this truly was a meltdown in which every player contributed (including Oriakhi despite his nice shooting numbers). However, there are some players whose performance is worth noting which I will do in a random thoughts format as there really is no longer any point in trying to make sense of what to expect from this team...except for more inconsistency.
Effort and Fundamentals - I've been screaming about them all season long and they are still a problem. This team cannot get consistent results because they are so fundamentally poor. It's like they have skills, but are not smart enough to know how to use them. The Jekyll & Hyde results have been hard to watch since at times this team looks like it is playing good basketball. Then in the second half, everyone on the team just seemed to be standing around hoping to save some energy for Vanderbilt. There were no hard cuts to the basket, absolutely no defensive intensity and sloppy ballhandling all contributed to the ultimate loss.
Phil Pressey - speaking of Jekyll & Hyde, which Pressey will show up in the next game? The one who does not shoot or the one who shoots more than any other player?
Free Throws - no Tiger went to the line more than once in this game. But even with the limited opportunities, Missouri players failed at the freebies. On another note, opposing guards can maul Pressey and the refs simply will not call a foul. This has been happening all year.
Defense - In the first half, Ole Miss scored 24 points on 33 possessions (0.73 points per possession). In the second half, Ole Miss scored 40 points on 31 possessions (1.29 points per possession). 7 of Ole Miss's 11 offensive rebounds came in the second half, usually from Murphy Holloway outworking Bowers who was horrific on defense in the second half.
Bowers - his second half was pathetic. He scored two early baskets in the second half, then disappeared (at least when it came to positive contributions) for the rest of the game. He did not get a single offensive rebound the whole half and looked horrible when defending the interior against Ole Miss. Bowers was going up against Holloway who had 9 rebounds in the second half to Bowers' 2. Just a really head-scratching performance from Bowers all the way around.
Keion Bell - Bell seems to have regressed back to early season form as he provided no help in scoring points. (He did do a good job of grabbing offensive boards though to extend some offensive possessions.)
Sloppy - Missouri turned the ball over 16 times, with 10 of those committed in the second half allowing Ole Miss back into the game. Again...effort and fundamentals.
Coaching - did not care for whatever it was that Haith was trying to do in that game. Not once did I feel like Missouri did anything good after a timeout. And there's no point in mentioning the obvious slow-down which directly contributed to the loss. Poor game from the coaching staff, in my opinion. How many times are they going to have to see this before they learn?
Expectations - no reason to expect anything different from this bunch. The only question is who will we see next - Jekyll or Hyde?
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