Study Hall: Mizzou 81, Vanderbilt 80

If anyone forgot, Missouri won a basketball game against a team with the second best NET rating in the conference. Vanderbilt is rated 15th in the NET as of this morning, and now Mizzou has pulled wins against the two top teams in the NET in the SEC at home. This game was probably their best game of the year also… until it wasn’t.

The Tigers started off the game poorly, going down 9-3 before finally stringing together a few stops.. But the offense was stilted until about the 13 minute mark when they strung together a 8-0 run, that gave them the lead for the first, and last, time. Jayden Stone broke and 11-11 tie with 11:57 left in the first half. Vandy would not tie or lead the rest of the game.

From 11-6 all the way to 65-44, the Tigers outscored one of the most efficient basketball teams in the conference 59-33 over the course of 25:17 of game action. They were good offensively, they were sound defensively, they rebounded, they took care of the ball and got good shots. It was all going so well.

The lead was 21 with 8:41 to play, that followed a multiple review session where Vanderbilt’s Devin McGlockton was hit for his second flagrant foul on the day. And to further bog down the game, Mark Byington was begging the officials to call a non-existant hook and hold on the same play McGlockton elbowed Anthony Robinson in the face.

The game was officially at a stand still, and Vanderbilt began to claw their way back into the game. I contend the moment things really turned when Mark Mitchell was fouled by Tyler Tanner after a Vanderbilt turnover. Mark rarely complains for fouls to be called and he immediately jumped up as though he was raked across the arm, and it looked like he was.

Tanner seized the ball and converted a shot and was fouled in the process. Instead of Mitchell shooting with a 16 point lead, Vanderbilt was setting up their press only down 13 now. Mizzou turned it over on the next possession, Tyler Nickel canned another three pointer and suddenly things began to tighten for the home team.

From that moment on, Mizzou seemed to only make the absolutely necessary plays to not fully collapse. Mizzou turned the ball over 14 times in the game, but 7 of those were in the final 8 minutes. In that timeframe they only attempted 9 shots from the field, they missed 5 of them. They were also 7 of 8 from the Free Throw line in the final 8 minutes.

7 of 8 from the line and 4 of 9 from the field isn’t terrible, if they’re able to just prevent one of the turnovers from happening it’s likely a very different ending. For the first 12 minutes of the second half, Vandy was 5-19 from the floor, in the final 8 minutes they were 13-18. I think as much as the turnovers, it was a lot of poor defense also.

With each guy creating at least one big mistake to let the ‘Dores creep back into it. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. They held on, they won, they got another Quad 1 win. They’re 18-8 and 8-5 in the SEC. But lets review anyway. TEAM STATS It was a good well paced game, and not just because Vandy turned up the heat to press for a lot of the second half. Where I think Mizzou really struggled was in and around the rim.

Mizzou was 6-16 on layups per Statbroadcast, and 5-5 on dunks. So 11-21 at the rim. That also means they were 2-11 from outside the rim, which is really bad. Good thing they made up for by going to the line 32 times, and making 10/20 from behind the arc.