Mizzou Tigers Can’t Stop Mississippi St, Lose 76-62

Jan 30, 2016; Columbia, MO, USA; Missouri Tigers guard Terrence Phillips (1) brings the ball down the court against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Mizzou Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary Rohman/USA TODAY Sports
Jan 30, 2016; Columbia, MO, USA; Missouri Tigers guard Terrence Phillips (1) brings the ball down the court against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Mizzou Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary Rohman/USA TODAY Sports /
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Mizzou Tigers lose sixth straight. This loss is SO much worse than the last five.

Perhaps they’ve given up. After the self-imposed postseason ban, there’s nothing in it for the Mizzou Tigers, other than pride. That could be one of the only explanations for the poor, poor performance put on in the first half; it was one of the worst all season. The Tigers went 9-31 from the floor and 0-13 from three. That is atrocious, especially against a team like Mississippi State, who are not the cream of the crop in college basketball. Sure Missouri comes far, far below the Bulldogs in say, the KenPom rankings, but this does not excuse what we saw in the first half tonight.

To put this in perspective: the Mizzou Tigers shot better against Kentucky than they shot against Mississippi State. KENTUCKY. How? How does a team shoot somewhat respectably against a top-25 team in Kentucky and turn around and quite possibly forget how to shoot a basketball in the first half against a team like Mississippi State?

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Where were players like Kevin Puryear, whose only contribution to this game was to go one-for-two from the floor? Namon Wright was the only one who had a remotely respectable game; Wright was 6-of-12 from the floor, made one of Mizzou’s two threes, and was 3-of-4 from the stripe. He also grabbed nine rebounds.

That was the best statistical performance from the Tigers tonight. That might not pass for a sixth man performance in the NBA on a bad night. It might not even make the cut at Kansas or Oklahoma. If the Mizzou Tigers want to come out of this forsaken season with their dignity intact, they’ll have to put up a better performance than they did tonight. This was inexcusable.

The last home basketball game is March 5 against Florida. We’ll all just have to watch this slow-motion train wreck until then.

Next: Something A Little Less Angry