Slu Vs Butler, Mizzou

[joeD]

Life is good brothers. Wow! Beating VCU and then Butler, on their home court, no less, in the same week. Who'd a thunk it? Not me. But I tell you what fellas, I guarantee you this, there is no team in the country that wants to play SLU right now. Their defensive ability to take a team (and any player) out of their offensive scheme and comfort level is just a pleasure to watch. Defense is not glamorous, it doesn't get you on ESPN. And I'm not talking about blocked shots that a defensive player swats the leather into the stands. No, SLU plays a hard nosed, consistent defense, always pressure on the dribbler, always pressure on the shooter, denying passing lanes, and crashing the boards. Their defense is what propels their offense. That is why SLU is so tough. You cannot key on any one player, because the other four on the court are just as capable of scoring, inside or out. Winning at Butler without Cody Ellis scoring a point? That is team play deluxe my friends.

Mizzou. Good luck. You're on the road and 2 point underdogs to a vulnerable Kentucky team. A feature ESPN game. Which Pressey will show up?

Apropos of nothing, I will add a fatherly brag about one of my daughters, a junior in high school, who is among the leaders in 3 point shooting in the St.Louis area. My wife always talks about her on Facebook, so, I thought I'd mention it on, um, my "fishing" site. Oh well. Proud papa bragging.

[ozark trout fisher]

SLU went from a clear NIT team to a potentially dangerous 5-7 seed in the tournament in the course of a couple weeks. What an amazing transformation. Sometimes the light just seems to come on for a team and that appears to be what happened for SLU. They weren't underrated all season...because for most of the season, they just haven't been that good. I mean, if you want to throw everyone off the scent, just lose to Santa Clara, Washington, and Rhode Island. That will do it. But something just changed overnight, and it's been fun to watch. They are a very real contender for a deep tournament run. A 2011 VCU style run to the final four honestly wouldn't be all that shocking.

[joeD]

Not anymore. Their guard play is terrific. Hinkson Fieldhouse is an extremely tough place for visitors to play. Free throws could be an issue. The team is peaking at the right time too. On one hand, I think it's a shame they are largely unrecognized and underappreciated, on the other hand, I think it's actually good for them to be unrecognized and underappreciated. The job Coach Crews has done with this team, under difficult circumstances, is just fantastic. He is the difference maker.

[ozark trout fisher]

The job Coach Crews has done with this team, under difficult circumstances, is just fantastic. He is the difference maker.

Yes. Why has SLU not given him a long term offer yet? He could win national coach of the year and potentially not even be given a multi-year contract, which is...interesting.

[ozark trout fisher]

Missouri just can't catch a break on the road. With the exception of losses to Florida, Ole Miss and the win over Mississippi State every road game has either gone to overtime or come down to the last shot...and Missouri has lost them all. First UCLA, then LSU, then A&M, then Arkansas, and finally this heartbreaker. So Missouri is playing well enough to have an opportunity to win for 39 minutes, and just can't seem to close it out. It's inexplicable.

Of course, this game wasn't as important as it would have been before the Florida win. Mizzou still probably isn't at serious risk of falling to the tournament bubble. A road win over South Carolina and a home win over LSU should be enough-and if they can get revenge by beating Arkansas at home that should remove doubt heading into the SEC tournament. The season ending road game at Tennessee probably has to be assumed to be a loss, and we could almost certainly afford that if we don't have a terrible collapse beforehand.

This was a really big deal for seeding though. With a win here, Missouri was likely headed in the direction of something like a 5 seed. Now, it's going to be tough to do much better than a 7. Given our road struggles, I'm going to guess we finish 22-9, with a loss to Tennessee, although you never know. Lose in the first round of the SEC tournament with that kind of resume and we could suddenly be looking at an 11 or 12 seed. If we can manage to win out (which would give us a decent road win over Tennessee), and make a run to the SEC championship game theoretically a 5 or 6 seed is still possible, but that's looking really unlikely now. Missouri (assuming they do make it in) will probably have to look to make a run knowing it's going to be facing a very good team in the first round. Teams have done it before, but obviously it hurts.

[Al Agnew]

It looks like the only way Mizzou can win a road game is to get so far ahead that they don't have to worry about stupid plays in the last minute. And teams playing them should know by now that if they can keep the game close until the last, all they have to do is triple team Pressey, because he's going to try to do it all at the end. This game was another frustrating one, because Pressey even made a big deal about how he's made so many mistakes at the end of close games, and then he completely messes up at the end of this one, too.

But the refereeing was again...perplexing. All Kentucky had to do was drive the lane in the last few minutes and they were going to get a foul call. But when Mizzou either drove the lane or went for offensive rebounds, they were pounded with no fouls called. I refuse to believe that the fouling on one end was so much more obvious than on the other end.

I have no idea anymore how well Mizzou can do in the tournament, assuming they make it. Maybe they'll be so happy to play on a neutral floor instead of on the road that they'll be unbeatable. Or not.

SLU has become a terrific team, and beautiful to watch if you appreciate defense.

[Quillback]

I thought maybe Pressey turned a corner after playing so well vs Florida and for most of the game vs Kentucky. But then he goes out of control in the overtime period, they are going to need him to be clutch in the NCAA's if they are in close games, he's capable, he's just got to keep it together for the entire game.

[moguy1973]

I saw a lot of homer ref calls again last night. Sad to keep using that as an excuse.

[ozark trout fisher]

Phil Pressey has been very good for us the past couple of games (extremely good for most of yesterday), but at this point there's no denying that he tries to do too much in late game situations. I think this is on Frank Haith as much as anyone else-apparently he is okay with Pressey almost always taking the final shot. Pressey is a very good player, but he's a point guard, and not our highest percentage shooter. In my opinion, down a couple with 30 seconds left you want Keion Bell driving to the bucket, or you want to get the ball down low to Oriakhi so he can hit a high percentage shot (or draw a foul.) Jabari Brown and Earnest Ross are also good options if we need a three.

Haith is a good coach. He really is. He almost always puts this team in a position to win games, even if it doesn't always work out. But he needs to work on his end of half situations. He always runs the clock way to far down before getting a play going, in my opinion. This was on display in Missouri's last shot to win the game in regulation and avoid overtime yesterday. It's been proven time and again that if we wait until there are 5 seconds left on the clock, we rarely if ever get off anything besides a desperation fade-away jumper. It just has to be better than that. I would get something going with about 10 seconds left, and if this gives the opposing team an opportunity for a rebound and a desperation shot at the buzzer, so be it. It's a risk we really need to take if we're going to win some of these games.

So at this point we really almost have to win by 10 or 15, or we're probably going to get in one of these situations. The close win over Florida was a breath of fresh air, but by and large that doesn't change the trend here. I feel legitimately bad for this team (and especially Pressey) because it has to be so frustrating. Maybe a little bit of adversity in the regular season will make them more prepared come tournament time. There's always that hope.

[Smalliebigs]

Man I love Missouri, back to the days when I lived on campus and hung out with doug smith one night.....watching him ride around in his Datsun 280z with a moon roof and a racoon tail tied to his antena, not sure where he got it coming from the ghetto of Detroit but who cares.The top of his head would stick out of his His roof, he would smile and wave....they were great times.

It hurts me to see their team get led down the same path in close games like this but, they still have the SEC tourney they could win otherwise I don't think they are dancing unless they run the table on the remaining schedule.????

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/conferences/standings/_/id/23/sec-conference

6th in the SEC and they have lost 6 out of the last 14 games all in the confrence.......Pressey's Allen Iverson imitaion at the end of games is killing them......I hope they can go on a roll, I really do but, they have been sucking me back in all year only to revert back it's tough.....but I love it....it's college basketball.March Madness is almost upon us.

How many teams will actually dance from the SEC???? I don't think 6