Mizzou Basketball: Mistakes continue to plague Tigers

Not long ago, Mizzou basketball was the talk of SEC basketball, having won five straight games and looking absolutely dominant in the process. Now, however, the Tigers have lost two in a row and look lost.

Mizzou basketball played a tough stretch of games in which they faced teams like Kentucky, Mississippi State, and then-ranked Texas A&M. The Tigers won all three of those games and had a five-game win streak going at that moment.

A road game against LSU didn’t seem too intimidating, but MU overlooked their opponent and fell in a last second loss over the weekend. The same thing happened on Tuesday night when the Tigers hosted the Ole Miss Rebels, the worst team in the conference.

Ole Miss sort of resembled the Missouri Tigers hoops teams of old (though not quite that bad), but were able to put up 42 points in the first half alone. That set the tone on the evening, but Missouri still had a chance to win the game.

It almost seemed as if [the Tigers] were looking ahead to the Kentucky game this weekend.

The Tigers battled back and took the lead in the second half, holding a five-point lead with two minutes on the clock. Turnovers and poor decision making ultimately led to Ole Miss tying things up and the same could be said for the overtime session in which Ole Miss scored just six points and Missouri only scored three.

The most painful moments of this game were pretty easy to pinpoint.

1. It was to the worst team in the SEC, which doesn’t bode well for a tournament resumé.
2. The Tigers had 21 turnovers! That, in turn, gave the Rebels opportunities to score and they took advantage of it, putting up 19 points on those 21 MU turnovers.
3. Free throw shooting was embarrassing. Ole Miss did not miss when shooting free throws (well, they missed one) while the Tigers had 31 tries and missed on 11 of those.
4. Jordan Geist decided to air ball a three at the end of overtime rather than passing the ball and that led to the loss.

It was not a fun loss for the Missouri Tigers and now there’s a lot of pressure to start winning again and that’s never a good thing when the pressure takes over. These past two games should have been easy victories for Mizzou, but it almost seemed as if they were looking ahead to the Kentucky game this weekend, rather than fixating on the game at hand.

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This could end up really hurting Missouri as far as the SEC tournament goes. Aaron Reiss of The Kansas City Star wrote,

"This loss delivered a severe hit to Missouri’s chances to earn a top-four seed in the SEC and have a double-bye in the conference tournament. Now the Tigers play two straight road games, starting with one at Kentucky."

It was a bad loss to a bad team and now the Missouri Tigers will REALLY have to get things together. They should still make the NCAA Tournament, but getting a victory or two in the conference tournament will do nothing but help their seeding in the big dance.

Next up for Mizzou basketball… Dun dun dun… the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington this coming Saturday. The Tigers defeated Kentucky a few weeks ago in Columbia and that was the first time Missouri had beaten the Wildcats since moving to the SEC in 2012.

It’s a big game and there’s a lot on the line. Will Michael Porter Jr. be in uniform for that one? We’ll have to wait and see.