Missouri men’s basketball obtained the redemption it was searching for.
Enjoying on the highway towards No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday evening, the No. 19 Tigers led wire-to-wire to secure a 73-64 win at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
Missouri earned its 2nd win over a major-10 crew this time and third around a rated opponent, improving to 10-2 overall and 4-2 in the Southeastern Conference. Tennessee falls to 10-3 and 4-3 in league perform.
The Volunteers soundly defeated MU 73-53 on Dec. 30 at Mizzou Arena in each teams’ convention opener.
No player by Tennessee’s very first 12 game titles of the time scored 20 points or more in opposition to the Volunteers. Missouri’s Xavier Pinson eclipsed that range suitable just after halftime and concluded with a recreation-substantial 27 points.
Dru Smith produced 18 points for the Tigers, while Jeremiah Tilmon additional nine in the victory. Yves Pons led Tennessee with 20 details.
Missouri came into the recreation as the worst 3-stage shooting group in the SEC, at about 28%. Missouri went 8-for-19 (42%) from deep Saturday, including 50% in the 1st 50 percent.
The Tigers, on a 3-video game gain streak, should move up in Monday’s Affiliated Push poll right after two triumphs this earlier 7 days.
Missouri is scheduled to return to action Tuesday night on the highway in opposition to Auburn, which put up 109 factors to defeat South Carolina on Saturday.
Soon after the matchup against Auburn, Missouri plays 4 of its up coming 5 online games at dwelling.
Saturday was Missouri’s very first victory in Knoxville considering the fact that December 1972, when top scorer John Brown put home 23. The gain snaps a 4-activity losing streak to the Vols.
Listed here are five points we discovered from Missouri’s upset triumph:
1. Pinson regains his offensive variety
By the time the recreation was three minutes aged, Pinson indicated he was locked in.
Rather of overthinking his offensive tactic, he went north-south and was relentless in receiving to the hoop for layups.
Pinson drained 3-ideas on again-to-back again possessions halfway through the very first 50 %. He scored 19 details just before the break on 8 of 10 taking pictures from the field and 3-for-3 from 3-level variety. The junior also had two assists and two steals.
In his past two online games, Pinson experienced nine combined factors. About his past a few, he had 20.
“The past handful of video games as every person noticed, I variety of did not glance like myself,” Pinson explained. “I did not drive the ball as well. So coach just offers me assistance on what to do and how to observe the online games and what to learn and how I can help my fellas, really. So going into today’s match, I just experimented with to best that.”
Just one factor of Pinson’s video game that will come with his aggressive type are a couple turnovers. He had 5 from Tennessee. It’s a trade-off mentor Cuonzo Martin is content with.
“I imagined he performed very well due to the fact he scored the ball but he (played) downhill,” Martin claimed of Pinson. “… He’ll get into the paint, make plays. And X is effective when he is going north and south and attacking. When he is east and west, moving the ball aspect to aspect, he is not assertive. He’s not intense. We want him downhill, earning plays.”
2. Dru Smith puts in yet another yeoman’s effort
Smith’s sport is just not flashy. He does not toss down slam dunks or get animated whilst on the floor. Smith concurred that he is quietly effective.
Yet he might’ve been Missouri’s most effective participant at both of those ends of the ground against the Volunteers.
Smith recorded 18 points, four rebounds and two helps in the game.
Possibly most importantly, he failed to dedicate a turnover.
“He’s completed a excellent occupation defending, shutting guys down and he is scoring the ball,” Martin stated of Smith. “But the greatest point offensively, he’s just shot-ready. For no matter what cause, I don’t know why he wasn’t all set to shoot the ball in all those past games. … That’s the only adjustment. It’s not as if we experienced a sit-down conference or just about anything.”
3. Martin helps make his scenario for the Tigers to get their honest share nationally
“Like I claimed to our fellas, a leading-10 staff received the game currently,” Martin stated Saturday evening.
If not for a 2nd-50 % collapse towards Mississippi State on Jan. 5, that assertion probable is correct on Monday.
Martin states he doesn’t commit time eaten in the rankings. He explained previously this period he’s not guaranteed why they exist right up until at least a couple months in.
Having said that, if a countrywide poll is heading to rank just about every group in college or university basketball, he would like the Tigers to get what he feels they deserve. Martin can make arguably his finest situation but next the victory around Tennessee.
“I am going to see how we jump,” Martin reported. “I just think, if you do your task, do it the ideal way, and we have attained it against a top-10 workforce in a difficult atmosphere, won the basketball sport, and it is my struggle for our gamers from that standpoint because they gained it. And they’ve come a long way. They set the time in, to put the function into it. So hopefully folks do the appropriate factors and acknowledge the do the job we have set in.”
4. Missouri will not need to have a Tilmon double-double each and every evening
In a few of Missouri’s former four games in 2021, Tilmon produced a double-double. It is a luxury the Tigers enormously appreciated.
Tennessee experienced a clear game strategy of how to protect him: pressure any individual else to conquer the likes of Pons and John Fulkerson down minimal.
That approach didn’t do the job, as Tilmon appeared prepared to get a stage back again in his individual creation to open up other facets of the Tigers’ offense.
The East St. Louis, Illinois, native concluded the game with 9 points, five rebounds and two blocks.
Defensively, he held Fulkerson, who averages just beneath a dozen points, scoreless until eventually midway through the second half.
“I just just claimed to Jeremiah, ‘Fulkerson’s a great participant. He’s a fifth-yr senior. But Jeremiah, you happen to be 260 pounds. Fulkerson’s 215, perhaps 220 kilos. Just believe about that for a minute. You have to dominate the video game,'” Martin said. “… I think he did just that the whole night and we knew they’d mail a double all kind of approaches. He realized that, he embraced it, observed the appropriate guys and other guys made plays.”
5. A glimpse into the long run still shows almost nothing but opportunity
Missouri faces a challenge Tuesday to prevent Auburn freshman Sharife Cooper, who has created people Tigers glance like a whole different crew due to the fact his insertion into the lineup.
It’s much less than two months away, but curious minds see Alabama coming to Mizzou Arena on Feb. 6, with contests towards TCU and Kentucky in involving.
The Tigers and Crimson Tide ought to be the SEC’s two greatest-ranked groups arrive Monday, producing for an intriguing countdown to that clash.
Speak to Eric Blum at [email protected]. Follow @ByEricBlum on Twitter.
Abide by Mizzou basketball with the Tribune’s Tiger Additional publication. Signal up at columbiatribune.com/tigerextra for tales, galleries and podcasts in your inbox just about every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.