Mizzou hopes swarming protection travels to Starkville | Mizzou Sports activities News
Arkansas guard JD Notae (1) towards Missouri in the course of the second half of an NCAA school basketball activity in Fayetteville, Ark. Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. (AP Photograph/Michael Woods)
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Cuonzo Martin saw a little something Saturday that looked common. His Missouri basketball team suffocated the lifetime out of Arkansas’ half-court offense in the Tigers’ 81-68 victory in Fayetteville. It was historic ineptitude by the Razorbacks.
Arkansas shot just 26.8 p.c from the flooring, the program’s worst capturing general performance in a Southeastern Conference recreation in the heritage of Bud Walton Arena, which opened in 1993.
“I’ve in no way in my total coaching job noticed so quite a few missed layups,” claimed Hogs mentor Eric Musselman, nonetheless dumbfounded after having ejected in the game’s closing minutes.
Mizzou will gladly take credit rating for all those shots that skittered or clanked off the rim. For weeks Martin has reported the Tigers hadn’t fulfilled their possible to turn into an elite defensive group, but Saturday’s effectiveness trended in that route. Mizzou not only compelled all those skipped pictures but managed the glass on the defensive end, grabbing 41 defensive rebounds to Arkansas’ 10 offensive boards.
With that form of efficiency, the Tigers may well be able to survive their taking pictures woes and turnover challenges. Mizzou missed 14 of 19 3-ideas in the victory and for the next straight recreation turned the ball more than 21 moments but played adequate relentless protection to get over all the offensive miscues.
“That’s us. That’s far more like us,” claimed Martin, whose group struggled in all parts three times before in a 20-place loss to Tennessee. “I even got to say probably the turnovers are us, much too. We make it tough on ourselves. But that’s us. You engage in with a level of grit, toughness and I assumed (we) had some conviction on the defensive aspect of ball. It’s like, person, just take satisfaction in that. If you’re heading to get conquer, make confident groups beat you. Never give online games absent. We gave one particular absent. We didn’t fight in opposition to Tennessee. Hopefully we discovered from that just one. That is one I’ll under no circumstances get above just due to the fact you obtained to contend. I never treatment what the scoreboard claims. You have bought to fight.”