Mizzou Basketball lost their exhibition game against UNLV on Thursday night. The game didn’t count, so as much as I’m not going to talk up their win over Kansas State, I’m not going to talk down this loss to UNLV. Winning always feel better than losing, regardless of whether the game counts or not. But it looked like Dennis Gates was willing to make a few concessions with his lineups early. Also, Jamier Jones, CJ Gunn, and Jaylen Carey were all sidelined and not dressed out.
Anyway, here’s the box score screen cap from Statbroadcast:
There are 13 players listed as having played, but I don’t remember Luke Northweather seeing the floor. But there was a lot to think about, so let me try to parse through things quickly, since the 9pm tip means I’m starting this out well after 11.
UNLV outplayed the Tigers
My biggest takeaway was that one team played a lot harder than the other. The Tigers didn’t have their full foster of players, but neither did UNLV. But you could see early the Rebels were focused on crashing the glass and being incredibly physical.
Jason Crowe played 36 minutes, Toni Bryant played 28, Aidan Chronister played 15. Those three players were able to overwhelm K-State, a team who is very focused on skill. Against UNLV the three freshmen, and not just those three but the whole roster, just got bodied by the effort of the Rebels. Lindenwood transfer Dontrez Williams, a Sikeston native, was only 1-5 from the floor and scored just 4 points, but he was +21. Mainly because he was out there playing his ass off.
Mizzou also struggled with MJ Thomas, a 6’8 225 forward who snagged 5 offensive rebounds. The same number as bouncy forward Tyrin Jones.
In all the Rebs grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, and scored 20 points off second chances. In the expected rebound battle Missouri was -5.8. And it felt worse than that.
First shot defense was decent!
Obviously 20 second chance points and a 42% offensive rebounding rate from the Rebels can skew your defensive metrics. But it doesn’t matter if you force a tough shot if you can’t corral the rebound.
If you’re looking for simple keys to take going forward is the Tigers need to be much better on the glass. But they aren’t giving up many blow-bys and the defense has largely been pretty solid.
Ball handling is going to be a concern
They have one point guard on the roster, and he’s not a point guard. Jason Crowe, Jr. is going to have nights where he loses the ball a bit more than you’d like. He’s going to have nights where everything is fine. Against UNLV he had 5 turnovers in 36 minutes. Three of them were poor. The other two were fine. It’s just something Missouri is going to have to live with. Because there aren’t a lot of answers with the rest of the roster.
The early returns for Aaron Rowe aren’t great. He played only 8 minutes against the Rebels, and that was more than he played against Kansas State. He only had one turnover, but he didn’t look like a player looking to seize minutes.
But the ball handling problem also reared its ugly head against a hyped transfer big man. The next point is…
Bryson Tiller needs to understand who he is
Tiller is as impressive of a physical specimen as anyone who has donned a Mizzou basketball jersey. But he’s played two exhibition games, and a total of about 50 minutes of game action and he’s turned the ball over 10 times. He’s also just 4-16 from the floor.
This is why in our post-Pro Day podcast we tempered some of the excitement about Tiller’s play. We’ve seen him play a lot, and he’s capable of looking like he did in the pro day. He’s capable of being dominant. But he’s spent a lot of time developing skills he doesn’t need to be the most effective player he can be.
There were even segments against UNLV where he asserted himself and he looked good. But the rest of the time he looked disinterested and passive.
For Missouri to be the best version of themselves, they need Tiller to be a physically dominant force on the inside.
All in all, this isn’t a five alarm fire performance or anything
It’s not ideal, but it’s an exhibition for a reason. Dennis Gates likes to treat these games like an exhibition. Mark Mitchell barely played in the second half again, as did Trent Pierce.
Gates almost seemed like he relished the team getting down and having to fight back a bit. They didn’t fight all the way back, but they made a run with Jordan Crawford on the floor, and he’s a guy who hasn’t sniffed game action until there was 7 minutes to play in the game. Down the stretch they were fighting back with Crawford, Bryant, Crowe, Kennard Davis and Nicholas Randall. Not a complete white flag lineup, but doing the same thing he did last week against Kansas State. Play the young guys.
So again, no Jones, no Carey, who knows what the end game is with CJ Gunn, but limited Pierce and Mitchell. This wasn’t Mizzou’s best foot forward. I still think they could have played better, and they could have played a lot harder. But the games begin the count next week.
That’s it. It’s late. Real action begins next week. And we still have previewing to do.