Mizzou basketball started the season off at 2-0, but the fun times came to an end on Thursday with a blowout loss at the hands of Utah.
The Runnin’ Utes took it to the Missouri Tigers, defeating MU by a score of 77-59. It was a poor showing by the Tigers, who had looked electric in their first two games of the season.
Sure, the main storyline of this game is going to be that Michael Porter Jr. didn’t travel with the team, but that’s no excuse for getting demolished by Utah. It was a road game, yes, but the Utes were picked to finish seventh in the preseason PAC 12 polls. Not exactly a confidence booster.
The Tigers did not shoot well, only making 34.6% of field goals and only have two Tigers go for double digit points on the night. Kassius Robertson continues to impress, putting up 12 points while Kevin Puryear had 11.
Can’t really shoot much worse than MU did in the first half.
— Carrington Harrison (@cdotharrison) November 17, 2017
Jeremiah Tilmon struggled at Utah, scoring just two points and getting into foul trouble once again. This is going to be a major problem with the talented St. Louis freshman, but that doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating.
Jeremiah Tilmon has played 16 minutes the last two games and recorded 10 fouls.#Mizzou
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) November 17, 2017
Missouri fans had every right to be excited after the team’s 2-0 start. Here was a team that lost to Lipscomb last year, among other not well known schools, and suffered through three really excruciatingly bad years of basketball. Now they have potential, but that potential hasn’t shone through yet for the Tigers.
Related Story: What is going on with Michael Porter Jr?
I wrote about Porter’s injury and whether or not fans should be worried, but even without him in this game, the Tigers should have performed much better. This looked like a team that was flustered and had no idea what the game plan was.
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Next up for MU is Emporia State, which is a Division II school. The Hornets will provide an easier match-up for Mizzou, which likely means that Porter (assuming his injury is still nagging him) will stay on the bench (or in the locker room).
I will say this, however, and that’s that Missouri came alive a bit in the second half. They only scored 19 points in the first half, and more than doubled that in the second half with 40. The problem was that they let the Utes improve in the second half as well, allowing them to score 35 points in the first half and 42 in the second.
The issue is that without Porter, this team might not have a reliable scorer. That will certainly become a much bigger issue as the season progresses and the Tigers begin to face tougher teams. They can escape those problems against the Wagners and Emporia States of the world.
Mizzou basketball is still going to be competitive this year, but this was a rough one to watch. The Utes are a Power Five school, but as referenced above, they weren’t supposed to make a ton of noise in their conference this year. Missouri, on the other hand, should make a bit of a splash in the SEC, but not if they play like they did on Thursday.
Time for a weekend to shake this loss off and get back to it on Monday against Emporia State!