[Racenut]

IMHO, Liberty looking pretty good this year for a team that has only one starter and two subs with appreciable playing time from last year. These are the type of games that we should be scheduling that will benefit the team at tournament time (if there is one) and beyond. Hard to replace the physicality of Myo and Scottie, but such is life in men's college basketball. It should be fun the next 2 1/2 years watching Preston and Rode develop and get stronger. I'm in!

[Dr. Sheh]

Tough game tonight, first half we played well enough to win but we didn't execute well on both sides of the ball in the second half. Mizzou also made some second half adjustments that clearly brought out our limitations on offense.

It seems they did a good job of taking away our 3 pt shooting lanes when we drove in the second half - Parker drove all the way through the paint and out the other side a few times with no one to pass to. As a result we took many contested shots near the end of the shot clock, not a lot of open looks. On defense, their guards were quick enough to beat our guard hedging up top which left open driving lanes and easy assists. Free throws continue to be a problem, hit a few more and is much tighter.

Preston missed a few opportunities tonight but continues to be better than what most of us expected. We struggled with fouls all night, made worse by Abii not playing much in the second half (guessing he missed time due to lack of defense being up to par ). None of our guards could really get going in the second half. But this core still has a ton of potential and will only get better in the weeks ahead, plus Jackson will be getting minutes at some point. I'm sure we'll learn a lot from this for conference play.

Mizzou is good though so we shouldn't be too down about this one. Might be the best team we'll face all year ahead of a tournament appearance. They'll be ranked if they beat Illinois and/or continue their strong play.

[Purple Haize]

Not a Preston fan tonight.

What are you talking about??? In only 14 minutes of playing time, Preston was our leading scorer and rebounder, shooting 4-7 from the field. He was our one bright spot tonight!

Our two starting guards shot 3 for 17.

Box score: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=318976

Not necessarily relevant for RMK. Look at his defensive rotations and communication. That’s how you will tell if they are gonna get RMK playing time. Which is the only reason I think surfer dude is playing at the moment. Cause offensively he makes me hurt

[TH Spangler]

In the second half the first time we drove and pitched out for an open 3 Mizzou called a time out and that was the end of that. They a very good, well coached team. I think we looked against them.

[olldflame]

Not a Preston fan tonight.

What are you talking about??? In only 14 minutes of playing time, Preston was our leading scorer and rebounder, shooting 4-7 from the field. He was our one bright spot tonight!

Our two starting guards shot 3 for 17.

Box score: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=318976

Not necessarily relevant for RMK. Look at his defensive rotations and communication. That’s how you will tell if they are gonna get RMK playing time. Which is the only reason I think surfer dude is playing at the moment. Cause offensively he makes me hurt

So, am I correct in surmising that "surfer dude" is a Drake Dobbs reference? He has the hair, but for the record, I don't think they do much surfing in Minnesota.

Not sure how anyone could watch the game and then rip on Preston. His productivity per minute was off the charts, and he showed some things I didn't think he had in his arsenal. Took his man off the dribble from the top of the key and scored twice.

If we are going to talk about players not getting minutes due to defensive shortcomings, it looks like Abii heads that list right now. Love his offensive versatility, but he needs to bear down and get with the program on defense.

[olldflame]

Thats hard to watch that second half. Just got taken to the woodshed. We havent done anything right the last 10 minutes and every single shot is not a good shot for mcghee. Hes got to get better with his shot selection. I totally get he has the green light but hes gotta be a little more cognizant of what a good look is. Hes too important to our success to just jack up stuff.

Biggest disappointment for me is this free throw shooting. Weve been declining the last 2 years. Its going to cost us a game in close games. Mcghee is the only reliable one at the line.

We got spoiled for a couple of years there when we were among the top FT shooting teams in the country. Can't expect that every year. We shot 17-22 from the line (77.3%) last night. I'd be ecstatic if we could keep that up going forward. 4 of the 5 misses were Preston. I think he is better than a 50% FT shooter, but let's face it, most guys his height are not great from the line.

[stokesjokes]

I like Preston, but I just really don’t think he has the tools at this level. He was productive on O last night, but he still left a couple of bunnies on the table, and our big problem last night was getting back to the big on the hard hedges, which he just isn’t quick enough to do effectively. He works hard, he tries, he’s just too slow.

[jinxy]

It felt like way more. I guess it was because they were all in the second half when we were trying to keep up. For the season we are sitting at 70 percent on the nose.

It still feels like beyond McGhee I couldn't trust anyone to make clutch free throws with the game on the line. Rode and Dobbs are probably the next best.

Preston did miss a couple bunnies and is terrible from the line but I felt like he and shiloh kept us in it and gave us a real inside scoring presence. Id like to see more of 2 of the 3 of Preston shiloh and abii together. They have really surprised me with their post offensive play. Defensively has been another story and likely the reason we won't see more of that.

[Jonathan Carone]

Given the progress Preston made from last year to this year, I’m not writing him off. He’s a solid piece of what we’re doing. As he keeps working, he’ll keep getting better. Not every player will be all league. There’s a role for him. He’s shown that.

[Cider Jim]

I like Preston...He works hard, he tries, he’s just too slow.

Too slow for the SEC or too slow for the ASUN?

Even with missing some layups and free throws, Preston still led us in scoring against an UNDEFEATED SEC team who had some major bigs in the post.

[stokesjokes]

Maybe I’m spoiled by how athletic our bigs have been, but he seems too slow to run our defense well. Part of what we do is that hard hedge, sprint back to the paint. I think yesterday showed that we will have to scheme that differently if Preston is our man in the middle.

Now, it also didn’t help that their guards were huge and could pass over and around our pressing guards pretty easily on those plays.

[flameshaw]

To me, the biggest reason we lost last night is because Mizzu was able to put the clamps on McGhee. In addition, #1 shot poorly and couldn't take up the slack from the outside. We shot good from the 3 in the first half, we didn't shoot well in the second half and they were able to drive the lane on us, later in the game.
We are making continuous improvement as a program. Hard to argue with that.

[olldflame]

To me, the biggest reason we lost last night is because Mizzu was able to put the clamps on McGhee. In addition, #1 shot poorly and couldn't take up the slack from the outside. We shot good from the 3 in the first half, we didn't shoot well in the second half and they were able to drive the lane on us, later in the game.
We are making continuous improvement as a program. Hard to argue with that.

Missouri's guards are both big and athletic. Dru Smith, who was on Darius most of the night, is one of the top defenders in the SEC.

[Just John]

Given the progress Preston made from last year to this year, I’m not writing him off. He’s a solid piece of what we’re doing. As he keeps working, he’ll keep getting better. Not every player will be all league. There’s a role for him. He’s shown that.

I'm not writing him off. He just missed what should have been 3 easy shots for him in a game you knew every possession was likely to be meaningful. I hope to see the whole team excel as the season progresses.

[tyndal23]

Better early talent than what we graduated, they have bought in so far for 30 minutes. Up to RK to keep Instilling discipline the other ten minutes and keeping each individual from trying to do too much on O and more on D and getting to 40 minutes of commitment. Harder to do with better talent, ( 5 guys used to being The Man )but way ahead of where I thought we would be in terms of buying in to the scheme. Pretty easy when the 3’s drop, much harder to stay disciplined on both ends when they don’t. This team will be legit when they fully mesh. No one has embarrassed them after 5 P5 games.