More on the road woes

In Thursday’s Missourian, my story focused on the struggles away from home of Missouri’s three freshmen guards, Marcus Denmon, Kimmie English and Miguel Paul. Here’s a closer look with some statistics I couldn’t fit into the story:

Marcus Denmon

• Road/Neutral FG shooting (8 games): 12-44 (27.3%)
• Home FG shooting (13 games): 44-90 (48.9%)
• Season FG shooting (21 games): 56-134 (41.8%)

• Road/Neutral 3-point shooting: 2-23 (8.7%)
• Home 3-point shooting: 21-47 (44.7%)
• Season 3-point shooting: 23-70 (32.9%)

• Road/Neutral points per game: 3.9 (High of 7 at Okla. St.)
• Home points per game: 9.6
• Season points per game: 7.4

• Road/Neutral Assists-Turnovers: 8-5 (1.0-0.63 per game; 1.59 assist-turnover ratio)
• Home Assists-Turnovers: 26-14 (2.0-1.08 per game; 1.85 assist-turnover ratio)
• Season Assists-Turnovers: 34-19 (1.62-0.9 per game; 1.8 assist-turnover ratio)

• Games with more than 10 points: 7 (vs. Prairie View A&M [15], vs. Ark. Pine-Bluff [11], vs. California [14], vs. SIU-Edwardsville [11], vs. Colorado [13], vs. Iowa St. [16], vs. Texas Tech [14])

Kim English

• Road/Neutral FG shooting (8 games): 14-46 (30.4%)
• Home FG shooting (13 games): 37-75 (49.3%)
• Season FG shooting (21 games):51-121 (42.1%)

• Road/Neutral 3-point shooting: 6-20 (30%)
• Home 3-point shooting: 20-43 (46.5%)
• Season 3-point shooting: 26-63 (41.3%)

• Road/Neutral points per game: 4.6 (High of 8 at Georgia)
• Home points per game: 8.4
• Season points per game: 7.0

• Road/Neutral Assists-Turnovers: 8-5 (1.0-0.63 per game; 1.59 assist-turnover ratio)
• Home Assists-Turnovers: 20-14 (1.54-1.08 per game; 1.43 assist-turnover ratio)
• Season Assists-Turnovers: 28-19 (1.33-0.9 per game; 1.48 assist-turnover ratio)

• Games with more than 10 points: 4 (vs. Ark. Pine-Bluff [13], vs. California [16], vs. Colorado [12], vs. Texas Tech [13])

Miguel Paul

• Road/Neutral FG shooting (8 games): 6-23 (26.1%)
• Home FG shooting (13 games): 28-62 (45.2%)
• Season FG shooting (21 games): 34-85 (40%)

• Road/Neutral 3-point shooting: 3-9 (33.3%)
• Home 3-point shooting: 12-37 (32.4%)
• Season 3-point shooting: 15-46 (32.6%)

• Road/Neutral points per game: 1.9 (High of 7 vs. USC in Puerto Rico)
• Home points per game: 5.9
• Season points per game: 4.4

• Road/Neutral Assists-Turnovers: 12-7 (1.5-0.88 per game; 1.7 assist-turnover ratio)
• Home Assists-Turnovers: 32-18 (2.46-1.38 per game; 1.78 assist-turnover ratio)
• Season Assists-Turnovers: 44-25 (2.1-1.19 per game; 1.76 assist-turnover ratio)

• Games with more than 10 points: 3 (vs. Prairie View A&M [11], vs. SIU-Edwardsville [12], vs. Coppin St. [11])

Denmon and English are going to be especially critical to the Tigers’ chances of winning road games in the Big 12, so these stats are really quite disturbing. Sure, some of the discrepancies can be attributed to facing much tougher competition on the road, but even when that’s taken into consideration, the gaps are quite large. Also, keep in mind that three of the games were played in a nearly empty gymnasium in Puerto Rico, so that was considerably more friendly than the Tigers will see in the Big 12 for the rest of the season. Even against lowly Fairfield, (where there were probably no more than 500 fans, most of them Missouri or neutral) the three shot a combined 7-22 (31.8%) from the field and 2-7 (28.6%) from three-point range.

Coach Anderson and his players will always say that they still have 100% confidence every time they shoot the ball, but that’s hard to believe after their performance last night. Denmon is too good of a shooter to be hitting the side of the backboard on a 15-foot baseline jumper unless he’s letting the road atmosphere or previous struggles get into his head. English missed more than one open look last night that would have been virtually automatic at Mizzou Arena.

If the Tigers are going to compete on the road and have a chance at a top 4 seed in the Big 12 tournament, it’s up to Coach Anderson and the veteran players to make sure these youngsters can learn how to handle a hostile atmosphere.

Hollins’ slump continues

If you feel like you’ve seen that headline before you’re probably not alone. A lot has been written this season about the year-long slump that senior Alyssa Hollins has found herself in. Rarely has a postgame press conference gone by where coach Cindy Stein hasn’t been asked to address her star player’s struggles. Wednesday night was no different.

“I’ve said this before,” Stein said after her team’s 68-60 loss to Oklahoma State, “if she goes 0-for-30, that’s OK, because that’s not going to happen. She’s too good for that to continue. But we do almost need to have her shoot it out. And plus, she draws a lot of attention and that’s also good for us. And I don’t know if Alyssa’s in a slump or not. She had 17 points today and I think that’s pretty good.”

It’s hard to argue that Hollins isn’t in some sort of slump. Her numbers are down across the board. Where Hollins is hurting the most is from beyond the 3-point line. Hollins has shot 38 percent from behind the three-point arc for her career but this year  she’s down to 29 percent.

If her 3-point percentage were in-line with her career averages she would still be having a bit of a down year but the drop-off would not be nearly as dramatic as it is now. 

But there is a lot of truth to what Stein was saying about the amount of attention Hollins draws from opposing defenses. Last night, Hollins went five-of-18 from the field and missed numerous open shots just as she has done throughout this season.

But you never see opposing defenses laying off Hollins. Oklahoma State had defenders bodying up Hollins the entire game regardless of whether or not she had the ball. That says something about the reputation Hollins has earned in the Big 12. Not many 32 percent shooters demand that type of attention.

When Hollins has the ball it frees up more space for teammates to get open and when she’s working off the ball it frees up more space for them to penetrate and get to the rim. That’s one of the major reasons why guards Raeshara Brown and Bekah Mills are having such solid seasons. Brown’s scoring is up over five points from last season and Mills has been the team’s most accurate 3-point shooter. 

It’s not pretty watching Hollins clank jumper after jumper off the rim. But just as you can’t deny that she’s in a slump, you also can’t deny that her mere presence opens things up for the Tigers on offense. 

Tigers fall to Cowgirls

The Missouri women’s basketball team fell to 10-9 and 1-5 in the Big 12 with its 68-60  loss to Oklahoma State. 

The Cowgirls were led by Andrea Brown who scored a game-high 30 points. Alyssa Hollins led the Tigers with 17 points. Shakra Jones finished with 15.  

Check the ColumbiaMissourian.com later for more on Missouri women’s basketball.

Tigers trail at half

The Missouri women’s basketball team trails No. 25 Oklahoma State 32-25 at halftime. The Tigers trailed by as much as 14 before a 9-0 run pulled them within five points. But Andrea Riley scored a last second layup to put the Cowgirls up by nine at the half.

Riley led Oklahoma State. with 14 points and four rebounds. Shakara Jones led the Tigers with six points and four rebounds. Alyssa Hollins also added six points.

Negative publicity?

Missouri women’s basketball coach Cindy Stein made some interesting comments after her team’s 61-56 loss to Colorado on Saturday night. She was discussing what her team has to do to break out of the slump it’s been in as of late.

“We’re in a position where we’ve got to fight a little bit harder,” Stein said. “We’ve got younger kids that we’ve got to get a little bit more seasoned and not lose faith. And some of that, honestly, we’ve got to get them to not read the papers because there’s always a negative slant to every article that’s in the paper. So we’ve got to make sure that we stay very focused and believing in ourselves because that’s not going to make us any better.”

Personally, I’m curious what stories Stein is referring to. I can’t vouch for the other papers in town but I know the Missourian does its best to provide fair and balanced coverage. It seems like sportswriters are constantly criticized either for being a homer or for being overly cynical. It’s difficult to find that balance and doing so is what ultimately makes a reporter a good journalist.  

In our defense, it’s our job to tell how the team is playing and why it’s succeeding or struggling. The team has lost four of its last five games and coach Stein will be the first to tell you that they haven’t played as well as they think they’re capable of playing. Consequently, most of our stories have tried to explain why things haven’t gone well. 

Unlike most MU students, we don’t have a rooting interest when we cover the team. But to be honest, I would actually prefer to see the team succeed because I think it’s more interesting to cover a team that has a chance of winning something significant. Coaches also tend to be easier to talk to when they’re winning. When they win not only does it make my job easier, but it makes or more fun.

And to be brutally honest, if all it takes is a few unfavorable newspaper articles to throw her team into a funk, then coach Stein probably has bigger problems to worry about than how we’re reporting.

Colorado leads Mizzou women at half

The Missouri women’s basketball team led for much of the first half but trail Colorado at halftime 35-30.

Bianca Smith has been on fire from 3-point range. She made 5-of-6 in the first half and leads the Buffaloes with 15 points.

RaeShara Brown was nine points to lead the Tigers.

Q&A with Michael Bittner

I answered some questions for Michael Bittner, a convergene student at MU who works with a CBS website in St. Louis. Here are his questions and my answers:

A win is a win, but can Wednesday night’s victory over Oklahoma State – a game the Tigers led by 20 points with 10 minutes remaining in the 2nd half but managed to win by just 2 – be considered a success?

As difficult as it is to win on the road in the Big 12, the Oklahoma State game should definitely be considered a success for the Tigers. Counting Missouri’s win Wednesday night, road teams have only won six games in the Big 12. We saw how tough the road can be in the Tigers’ loss at Nebraska. The Cornhuskers were a vastly inferior team to Missouri, but there is just something about playing on the road in the Big 12 that causes strange things to happen.

I think Wednesday’s win over the Cowboys will give Missouri, especially its freshmen, a lot more confidence on the road. It will also be a learning experience about poise under pressure. I doubt we’ll see Marcus Denmon committing any more intentional fouls in crunch time.

Probably the biggest question mark early in the season about this team was if they could win on the road. So even blowing the lead, I think any road win is a success.

Much has been made about the Tigers offense, coined by Coach Mike Anderson as “40 minutes of hell.”  Anderson finally has athletes who play his style, but is it so up-tempo they will be worn out come March?

I think the 40 minutes of hell title is usually given to the defense rather than the offense, but the Tigers do want to play fast at both ends of the floor. One of the team’s weaknesses is that their offense is so dependant on the defense. If the press is forcing turnovers, the Tigers can fastbreak and get easy buckets. When the defense isn’t forcing turnovers or missed shots, the Tigers can struggle to score in the halfcourt.

To answer the question, I think there is a real possibility that some of the Tigers will be worn down. I have never seen any other basketball players compete with the constant intensity that DeMarre Carroll and J.T. Tiller bring to the court. Carroll was hurt last season and his ankle has given him some problems early this year.

Still, I don’t think fatigue will be a huge factor for this team for two reasons. For one, the Tigers did a good job of scheduling a relatively tough nonconference schedule while still playing their fair share of cupcakes. The starters had plenty of rest early in the season in the second half of games against teams like SIUE and Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Secondly, the Tigers depth will help them avoid fatigue. Anderson legitimately has an 11-man rotation, and no one on the team averages more than 25 minutes. That means the team should be fresh come the end of the season.

It has been noted Missouri does not have a signature go-to guy.  Who do you think Anderson would want to take the last shot in a tie game?

I think this is possibly the team’s biggest weakness. The Tigers simply lack a player who they can get the ball to when they really need a basket at the end of a game.

Carroll is a steady player, but he’s too likely to have his shots blocked to be a reliable clutch performer. J.T. Tiller and Zaire Taylor are steady players, but they aren’t able to create their own shots. Tiller’s jumper is subject at times. Marcus Denmon took the shot down three with four seconds to go at Nebraska, and he didn’t come through.

I think if the team needs a three, Matt Lawrence should be the one to get the shot. He is having a much better season than last year. If the team needs a two, I think the best bet is Leo Lyons, but now that he is coming off the bench after his suspension, it’s hard to say how much confidence Anderson has in him. Still, he’s the team’s most talented player.

Which freshman do you think has been most impressive this far into the season?

I have been most impressed with Kim English. He is a steady defender and a solid shooter. He is also a mature person and an extremely hard worker. Best of all, English is a winner and a team player.

The other freshman who is quietly having a nice start to his career is Laurence Bowers. He is a human highlight reel. There just aren’t enough minutes for him.

Gut feeling: Will Mizzou be dancing in the NCAA tournament this March?

I think Missouri will be in the tournament, but it better take care of its business early. If the Tigers need to help their resume in the final three games against Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M, they could be in trouble.

I just don’t see that many good teams in the Big 12. I predict Missouri will finish fifth in the conference and come in around a seven or eight seed.

Jayhawks still the team to beat in the North

After a shaky nonconference season, the defending champs are giving Kansas fans some more of what they’re used to with three convincing wins to open Big 12 play. After Monday’s dominating win against Texas A&M for their third straight win of 16 or more points, Kansas looks ready to run away from the pack in what seems to be a weak Big 12 North.

Freshmen Tayshawn Taylor averaged 17 points on better than 73 percent shooting to win Big 12 Rookie of the Week honors last week, and on Monday night it was veterans Sharron Collins and Cole Aldrich who helped Kansas extend its winning streak at Allen Fieldhouse to 35 games. The Jayhawks have a decent opportunity to go 6-0, with road games against Iowa State and Nebraska before a home game against the lowly Colorado Buffaloes.

That’s another reason why tomorrow’s game at Oklahoma St. is so important for Missouri. Unless a gutsy Nebraska team pulls off a miracle at Oklahoma, a win by Missouri would be the only thing to prevent Kansas from taking an early two game lead in the loss column. Not only that, but it still seems like Missouri needs to get at least one road win in Stillwater or in Manhattan next week against a struggling Kansas State team to put themselves in good position to weather an increasingly difficult conference schedule.

But even Kansas doesn’t seem to be in the same league as the Oklahoma Sooners right now. Although Blake Griffin and co. showed some signs of weakness in road games at Kansas State and Texas A&M, they’re still sitting comfortably as favorites to win the conference title. If the Sooners continue to get the kind of contributions they got from Big 12 player of the Week Austin Johnson last week, it’s hard to say who’s going to beat them in this league. Texas seems to still be in the hunt after a dominating win at Texas Tech, and we’ll know a lot more about No. 23 Baylor after they play road games against Kansas State and Oklahoma this week.

Protecting the home floor

At Mizzou Arena, it’s hard to argue the Tigers have been one of the top teams in the Big 12, maybe even the nation. Outside of the first half against Stetson and certain stretches during relatively close games against Murray St. and Oral Roberts, the Tigers have looked nearly unbeatable. Along with blowing out every mid-major team making the trip to earn some money, Missouri has also crushed Colorado, Iowa State and most impressively, California. The Golden Bears are ranked 23rd in the country, although they”ll probably lose that spot when the new polls are released Monday, following their first loss since the Missouri game Saturday at Stanford.

But when the Tigers travel elsewhere, it’s been a different story. Missouri’s had some decent games, like the win at Georgia, the close loss to Xavier and a convincing 87-59 against Fairfield in Puerto Rico. The Tigers even played one of their best halves all year in the second half to rally and beat USC in that same Puerto Rico tournament. But against Illinois in St. Louis and at Nebraska, Missouri looked like a completely different team, unable to find good looks and score points. It’s a problem Mike Anderson needs to fix.

Perhaps he’s found the solution in making some adjustments to the starting lineup. Kim English and Keith Ramsey have done well so far replacing seniors Kim English and Matt Lawrence, and they seem to be enjoying it. After the game yesterday, I asked Ramsey what would have happened if Iowa State star Craig Brackins had tried to dunk over him like he did successfully against Leo Lyons. Ramsey was fairly modest about it, saying only “The results never would have been the same.” But English was sitting next to his buddy and overheard the question. He leaned in to make sure I could hear his answer.

“He’d have thrown it to the 5th row!”

Certainly, all of the Tigers could use this kind of confidence as they head to Stillwater to take on a talented Oklahoma State team who nearly won at Baylor on Saturday. Of course, Coach Anderson would say defense will be the key for Missouri, but the numbers would seem to suggest otherwise. The Xavier loss was a bit of an anomaly, one that the Tigers could have won against a very good opponent had they simply made some free throws. But Missouri’s other two losses came more because of poor offense than poor defense. The Tigers shot less than 38% in those two games, compared to better than 48% shooting the rest of the season.

Of course, Anderson would probably make the case that the defense is what makes the offense go, and this is true in some ways. But Missouri’s struggles have often come from poor shooting, even with decent looks at the basket. The Tigers have scored 75 points in every win this season and have never lost when scoring more than 71 points. If you take away the 75-71 loss, Missouri’s scored less than 60 in its only losses. Meanwhile, the defense has allowed as much as 84 points in wins, and three times opponents have scored 75 or higher in Missouri victories.

Where in the world is Christine Flores?

Many times this season Missouri coach Cindy Stein has talked about wanting to develop a steady 10-player rotation. But after Saturday’s 67-66 victory over Nebraska it appears that Stein is a long ways off from finding 10 players that she is comfortable giving steady minutes to.

On Saturday, Stein only played seven players over four minutes. A big surprise during the Tigers’ first three Big 12 games has been the lack of minutes given to freshman Christine Flores. 

In Missouri’s final three non-conference games Flores averaged over 16 minutes and had what appeared to be a breakout performance against Duquesne with 17 points and four rebounds. It looked as though she had worked her way into a consistent spot in Stein’s playing rotation.

But since conference play began, Flores has played a combined 13 minutes. Flores only played three minutes against Nebraska but made the most of the short time she was on the court. She scored two points, grabbed an offensive rebound and deflected another rebound that kept a possession alive for the Tigers.

Stein didn’t go into much detail but had this to say about the players that she chooses to play each game:

“Honestly, it depends on their play in practice,” Stein said. “If they’re pretty focused in practice then they’re going to be pretty focused in the game because we’re executing our gameplan throughout the course of the week. And so if they’re looking to do the right things then that’s what you’re looking to put in.”

Stein added that part of the reason some of her younger players didn’t get as much playing time was because Nebraska employs an up-tempo style of play. She said that style can easily frustrate less experienced players who have yet to develop the same instincts that her more seasoned veterans have.

Miguel Paul’s family circus

Well it seems like the Miguel Paul story has mostly blown over with the 46-hour news cycle, but we still don’t have all the answers.

Based on all of the reports and information that have come out, there is a lot of things that we are pretty sure about. But there isn’t too much we know with 100 percent certainty.

The one thing we are sure of is that Miguel Paul and Chris Paul are not first cousins. Most of the information seems to point to them being distant relations. Supposedly Miguel Paul’s father is “distantly” related to Chris Paul’s uncle James Paul. At least, that’s what MU basketball spokesperson Dave Reiter says.

We are also pretty sure that Miguel Paul and Chris Paul have not met like Miguel told me they had for a story I did in November. Chris claims they never met. The Hornets played a couple of games around the country during the tournament where Miguel had said they met. I’m not 100 percent sure they didn’t meet, but I’m pretty close.

If you missed all of this somehow. I’ll help you catch up. Here is my original Missourian story. Here is a story I wrote summarizing all of the recent reports.

UPDATE: Women win first Big 12 game of season

The Missouri women’s basketball team defeated Nebraska 67-66 on Saturday night at Mizzou Arena.

The Tigers improved to 10-6 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12 with the win while the Cornhusker fell to 9-7 and 0-3 in the Big 12.

Check back here and at ColumbiaMissourian.com later for more about the game.

Lyons in uniform, not starting

They announced that Lyons was starting. Then right before the tip off they “corrected” it. Seems like a ploy by Anderson to keep Iowa State on its toes.

The starters are the same as against Colorado. English and Ramsey starting.

UPDATE: In the postgame press conference Anderson said that the announcer just messed up, and that he didn’t actually make a change. It makes sense that Anderson wasn’t planning to start three bigs in Lyons, Carroll and Ramsey. Whoever was on the floor, Missouri played well, winning 77-46.

No Leo, No Problem

Missouri’s 107-62 win last night indicated two things: 1. Colorado is as young and inexperienced as Jeff Bzdelik said they were. It could be a long season for Buffaloes fans. 2. Mike Anderson’s young post players have benefited significantly from all the time they got in nonconference play this season, and Missouri could survive if Leo/DeMarre get into trouble with fouls, suspensions, or injuries.

Saturday’s game against Iowa State will be a little tougher —the Cyclones got within 8 at Texas last Saturday and beat Nebraska at home Wednesday night— but it’s another the Tigers must win if they expect to be taken seriously in the Big 12. With Craig Brackins leading the way for Iowa State, the Tigers could really use the help of Leo Lyons. If Lyons and Carroll can effectively use their quickness to challenge Brackins off the dribble, it could get the big man in foul trouble and completely change the game.

But Anderson’s staying quiet about the status of his second leading scorer right now. The only thing he would say Wednesday was that Lyons still needs to do some things to “please the coach”, which would seem to indicate there might be more issues here than meet the eye.

It should be interesting to see if Laurence Bowers starts to see playing time in serious situations after dominating Wednesday when the Tigers had a comfortable lead. With the way Justin Safford had been struggling before he scored 13 against Colorado, a more consistent post scorer off the bench could be a big help.

The Tigers should be wary of Iowa State, who won at Mizzou Arena two years ago and pushed them to two overtimes last season. But both teams are very different this year, and Missouri should certainly have the upper hand.

Missouri basketball at crossroads

After the loss to Nebraska, Missouri coach Mike Anderson tried his best to minimize the importance of one road loss in the Big 12. It isn’t easy to win on the road, and this was only one game.

Obviously, it isn’t in Anderson’s best interest to exaggerate the significance of the loss. There are still 15 conference games left, and the coach needs to keep his players confident and motivated.

But the Nebraska loss has more significant implications that the coach might want to acknowledge publicly.

After the 13-2 nonconference record, Missouri’s goal is clearly to qualify for the NCAA tournament. To do that, the Tigers need to beat teams like Nebraska that are on the bottom half of the conference. That’s not to say that this one loss dooms Missouri’s season. It doesn’t. But it is a game that the Tigers should have won. If the Tigers don’t end up in the tournament at the end of the season, this Nebraska loss might be the one that they really regret.

As many of you probably know, Leo Lyons has been suspended indefinitely because of a traffic arrest. He will miss the game against Colorado on Wednesday, and the situation will be evaluated again before Saturday’s game against Iowa State.

The Tigers’ schedule is pretty easy to start conference play, and Colorado is probably the worst team in the conference. Without Leo, however, nothing is going to be easy. If Missouri can’t win shorthanded on Wednesday, the team will really have to do something special to have any chance at the tournament after an 0-2 start to conference play against weak competition.

So even though it’s early, these next couple games will be paramount to Missouri’s chances of playing in the postseason.