Mizzou-Arkansas Game

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agree again with Al and Quill......mizzou got the ball into oriaki posted up 2x in a row and he make it look easy.....then they went away from it.....I did not like that.......here's to hopin things go their way with Florida!!!!

[ozark trout fisher]

The Florida game should be fun. I truly believe Mizzou can hang with anyone at home, but Florida will be the best team we've had in our building all year. Mizzou can win, but they absolutely have to play the kind of defense they have the past couple of games. Florida's own defense is elite, so if Mizzou simply tries to outscore them it will be ugly again. I think Bowers and Oriakhi will have to step up. We don't need to make (or take) a bunch of threes, but if we shoot 14% like Saturday it will also be hard to expect anything but a blow-out loss. Missouri really needs to have the offense they had against Ole Miss, and defense they had against Miss. St and Arkansas. Missouri has had very good offense a whole lot of the time, and good defense some of the time, but has never really put the two together in one game with the possible exception of Illinois They've got to find a way to put everything together tomorrow. If so they probably get out of there with the best win of the season to date. But it's a whole lot to ask.

Mizzou has the capability to be a dominant rebounding team as well. I believe we are #3 in the country and best in the SEC in that regard. But Florida actually badly outrebounded us in our first meeting, one of very few teams to be able to do that. If Missouri can change that, it could completely alter the outlook of the game. Obviously, this game is extremely important. With a win, Missouri can spend the rest of its season working on improving its tournament seed, maybe even working its way up to a 5 or a 6 seed. With a loss, the tournament bubble talk will really kick into gear...though I think it would still be premature. Mizzou's path to the tournament should be pretty clear, win or lose tomorrow, as long as they can get to 10-8 in conference. But we're a lock if we win, for all intents and purposes.

[stlfisher]

Pressey needs to take his game up to the next level. He needs to play smart, disciplined basketball. As I watched that game I kpet wondering why Mizzou wasn't taking advantage of their bigger and stonger inside game. If Pressey learns how to feed the big guys, rather than looking for his own shot, Mizzou can be tough to beat. But if they continue to play like they did vs AR, they're going to fail in the Big Dance.

I agree. Pressey needs to make the smart play instead of the flashy play. Part of the reason Mizzou didn't take advanatge of the inside play is Oriakhi was on the bench for a considerable amount of time in foul trouble.

Al, is right Bowers' is not himself...not sure what is going on with that.

Just eyeballing it I thought Mizzou was more effective with Bell at point gaurd....would be enteresting to see if any stats back that up.

This team is starting to get the feel that it can't quite get over the hump. 1 step forward and 2 steps back. The do have a lot of close losses which if they figure out how to close them out may help them come tourney time.

I really wonder if Pressey's stock has fallen a bit this year.

[Al Agnew]

Pressey could certainly play better and smarter, but I think sometimes he gets a bad rap. People were really complaining when he was taking a lot of shots in some of the past games, but he was usually attempting to take what the defense was giving him. In several games, the defense was staying at home on their men and daring Pressey to beat them. Given that the game plan when he's in is mainly for him to create shots for the other players, if the guys guarding the other players don't go to help out on Pressey when he penetrates, he has no other option but to shoot. Unfortunately, he's a very inconsistent shooter. In reality, that's the part of his game he really needs to work on. Everything else is just mental, like taking threes early in the shot clock even if he's open (again, daring him to beat the other team), and making flashy passes and believing he can get through any double team.

When Bell takes over the point guard duties, the game plan seems to change, with more passes and movement. And Bell, unlike Pressey, can finish at the rim. When he penetrates he goes all the way, while Pressey is either going to pass or take the short teardrop shot that may or may not go in.

I think that Haith deserves some blame for all this. With Pressey at the point, the team is too one dimensional. He shouldn't have the ball in his hands 90% of every possession.

[ozark trout fisher]

Pressey is a brilliant player, but there has just been too much pressure on him. Keion Bell is a solid ball handler but is in no way a true point guard. He is great at driving and finishing, but his passing skills just aren't anything close to Pressey's. Some teams can have moderate success without using a true point guard but usually that is a system that doesn't work long term. Good defensive teams can generally pick that apart.

Fact is, Pressey is still a good point guard and more importantly, our only point guard. He contributes a lot, and also takes away a lot. Most star players do. The question to ask, at the end of the day, is where would this team be without him? I think that Mizzou would be lucky to even be in contention for an NIT bid. Bell is a wing, and can run the offense for 7-8 minutes a game when Pressey is out. Bell has been tremendous for us. He might even be our most consistent scorer now. But he's still not a point guard.

Pressey is a bit like Rajon Rondo in NBA terms. A great passer who can make his teammates better when he is in pass-first mode, but also a poor outside shooter who sometimes doesn't seem to realize when the shots aren't going down. And he is not a great finisher when he drives to the basket-as you would expect from someone who is 5'10". But when he is playing well, I'd take him over any point guard in the country. Remember he is still just a junior. He could probably benefit from staying another year in Columbia, although if he's gonna be a first round pick it would probably be in his best interest to go early. Especially if the Haith situation ends up worse than we hope.

[moguy1973]

They need to put about a half pound of lead in the soles of Pressey's shoes to slow him down a little...He's almost too fast for his own good sometimes and gets ahead of himself in what he wants to and can do.

[joeD]

Right now, Pressey's assist to turnover ratio is horrible, especially for a point guard. Hey, haircuts don't lie. I can't remember a player so skilled and so frustrating (usually on the same play) than Phil Pressey. Mizzou's defense is more problematic, I think. The excuse that these players "don't know each other" on the court is nonsense. The fact that they continually lay eggs on the road can be put at Coach Haith's feet. Yes, I said earlier, have faith in Haith. I'm not so sure now. My wife tells me to quit watching Mizzou "if it makes you so unhappy." Oy.