Missouri basketball...

[Al Agnew]

I agree, that wasn't a bad loss.  Third game in 5 days, 14 point underdog, against a tough team on their floor.  Other than the little run Xavier made at the beginning of the second half they played them even, and I didn't see much difference in the talent level of the two teams.  Lots of ticky tack fouls being called and I think that made the Mizzou guys a little tentative on defense after a while, but I also suspect that they were a little tired the second half...they didn't play good defense that half, played with their hands instead of their feet.   And they couldn't adjust quickly when Xavier went to the 1-3-1 zone.

[joeD]

Also, they seemed to panic a bit when they got down by 10 in the second half, and started to chuck up 3s as if there were 2 minutes left, not 13, when it started. Encouraging. That is my default opinion for now.