Postgame Thoughts
In a game where it came down to who wanted it least, the Missouri Tigers found a way to lose. But Texas A&M shouldn’t be really thrilled with their performance in Tuesday’s 63-57 victory.
Not to put too soft a term on it, but this game was terrible. Both A&M and Missouri should be charged for the damages to the rims at Reed Arena, because I've never seen a college game where so many shots from a foot or closer were missed. We even had the rim stuff a reverse slam dunk attempt by Solomon Washington. It was a comedy of errors.
Thankfully for the Aggies, Missouri made more of them. They turned the ball over 15 times, which resulted in 21 A&M points. Those blunders, along with a remarkable 37 free throw attempts by the Aggies, was the difference in the game.
Credit has to go to coach Buzz Williams for doing two things: one, noting the reality that his team just does not shoot well. They have games when they do, but more often, they're below average to flat out bad. Second, Williams noted that Mizzou has a tendency to foul, and foul a lot. So he told his guys to go right at them and get the harm.
They did it, and that led to 27 free throws made. Missouri only get to the line 10 times, making 7. That's a disparity that usually has coaches screaming to the media about how badly the officials screwed their team, but what was Dennis Gates going to say? His guys were hacking like an asthmatic during allergy season.
Henry Coleman's ability to get the fouling started really saved the game for the Aggies. A&M came out asleep, as usual, and fell behind 13-4. But Coleman game off the bench 4 minutes in and began collecting fouls like baseball cards. He went to the line 10 times in the next 8 minutes to spur A&M's best offensive surge of the game. The Aggies went on a 23-2 run, but it wasn't pretty. There were still a lot of missed shots, but the defense clamped down on Mizzou and made a subpar team look completely clueless.
The defense was absolutely necessary, because the bricks from the Aggies were shot early and often. They only scored on 28.8% of their shots, and 22.2% of their 3s -- which is, admittedly, an improvement over their 3-point shooting in some other recent games.
Wade Taylor didn't shoot that well, but 5 of 13 in this game makes you look like Larry Bird. More importantly, Taylor did what he does: make shots in key moments. In the second half, especially, Taylor killed Missouri runs with a 3 or a layup.
Boots Radford looked terrible in the first half, but turned it on in a big way in the second. He had all 11 of his points, and if you want to look to a guy who put the dagger (blunt and rusted that it was) in the Tigers, he did it. Missouri took a 39-38 lead with 13:35 to go in the game, but over a painful 3:40 stretch, Radford went on a personal 7-0 run with two of his patented driving layups and a 3. Mizzou cut the lead back to 3, but Radford got out on the break and found Washington for an alley-oop slam to put the Aggies back up 5.
Washington did not have a good night offensively, making that slam for his only basket in 7 tries. He also turned the ball over 3 times. But he had 8 rebounds and his defense, which is consistently overlooked, was key. He's so fast for a player of his size that he can defend bigs or guards, and he did both last night.
Washington and Coleman were also put in a situation they're not used to this season: playing with their backs to the basket. Even though Williams said that was planned, Coleman's best work came when he faced up Mizzou's big men. He's definitely at his best going downhill, looking at the basket.
Earlier this year, Williams responded to a question that I asked about Andersson Garcia by saying he impacts a game more without scoring than any player he's ever seen. Now Garcia is scoring. He had 11 last night, including 7 makes at the foul line, and pulled down another 7 rebounds. In a season that has been pretty disappointing so far, Garcia continues to be a bright spot. He's a calming influence and a playmaker -- though not in the classic sense -- when he's on the floor.
Missouri is a bad team. Terrible, in fact. It's kind of unnerving that A&M allowed them to stick around last night, but hopefully they were just playing down to their level of competition. 57 points is the second-lowest total Mizzou has had this year, so that's a positive -- but they could have scored a lot more if they could make shots from 6 inches away.
Ole Miss is up next and they're 15-3. The Aggies need to get that one, and they're not going to get it if they don't step up their game, especially on offense, in a hurry.