By Seth Herrold
It would appear the SEC is a little tougher on the basketball court than most Mizzou fans originally thought. That or the Tigers aren’t quite as good as we would like to think. After a loss on the road to the last-place team in the SEC on Wednesday, it would appear the Tigers are in trouble.
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I will admit, back around Christmas when Florida was wrapping up a loss to what I thought to be a very mediocre Kansas State squad, I said there was no reason Mizzou shouldn’t win the SEC basketball title. I may have even said anything less would be a disappointment. Sure, I figured Missouri might lose a game here or there to a team playing over their head or on a night when the Tigers were just not hitting. That’s basketball, it happens. But sitting there a little over a month ago, I never dreamed Mizzou would be 4-3, looking like they wouldn’t be a threat to contend for the SEC title.
Watching the game on Wednesday, the Tigers’ struggles really reminded me a lot of the Los Angeles Lakers at the NBA level. I will admit I don’t watch the NBA. I have tried; it just doesn’t entertain me and I end up mad at the game rather than enjoying it. But you can’t watch five minutes of ESPN’s Sportscenter without hearing all the latest goings-on with the Lakers, a team of superstars that just can’t win. Mizzou has a ton of talent on the roster and they do a might bit better job of winning games than the Lakers do. But the struggles are similar. Both teams have one of the best guards at their respective levels. For the Lakers it’s Kobe Bryant and for the Tigers it’s Phil Pressey.
Watching Phil down the stretch, he was doing his darndest to win that game for Missouri. I like that; I like a guy who will take charge and say we are not going to lose this game if I have anything to say about it. Kobe does that a lot for the Lakers. The thing about Phil and Kobe is they try to do too much. You can pick a team up in other ways besides shooting the basketball. Phil took two ill-advised three-point shots down the stretch. Both were off-balance and neither went in. LSU grabbed the rebound both times. The second such attempt, really Missouri’s last good chance to tie the game, should have never been taken. Phil had a huge assist earlier when he drove the baseline and kicked the ball out for what ended up being an assist on the three-pointer. He should have been looking to do that rather than taking a poor shot on his own. He had an open teammate across the arc, too.
Phil is a great player, I don’t mind him shooting a lot of shots, but there are times when he needs to realize there are better shots to be had for his team and he is more than capable of setting up those better shots. He is an excellent passer and has proven that on a number of occasions.
The Lakers have turned the corner a bit here in the past week, save for last night’s loss in Phoenix, because Kobe has started passing more. He still takes his shots, but he averaged 13 assists a game over a three-game stretch this week. Pressey does a great job finding the open guy. I just think when the game gets on the line he is more concerned with being a hero than a leader and the team needs him as a leader, not a hero. There are some quality shooters on this team that can knock down three’s just as good as Pressey.
It’s still early in the conference season. If the Tigers can figure this out, maybe they can still make a run at the league title, or at least the conference tournament championship. Oh, and there is that big tournament at the end of the year as well.