Lineup Performance: Missouri vs. South Carolina

In the wake of a loss defined by lethargy, there was the natural urge to see No. 14 Missouri dispense a biblical reckoning against a scuffling outfit from South Carolina.

Instead, we got something more befitting Dennis Gates’ sideline persona: a buttoned-up and dispassionate dismantling. The ease with which the Tigers comfortably swatted away the cellar-dwelling Gamecocks only required some modest exertion. 

The Tigers led by 16 points barely 12 minutes in, sustained that edge until the break, and then scored on four of their five trips after the break. Ultimately, MU didn’t strike a death blow while trampling Carolina on the break. Nope. It entailed notching 10 points over four trips by simply running their base offense. 

Among the 26 line changes made by Gates on Tuesday, just one resulted in a scoring margin better than plus-7, and it came after garbage time arrived at the 9:48 mark.

The steadiness and relative, dare I say, calm of MU’s performance makes the substation pattern look deceptively underwhelming.

That is simply a matter of scale, though. 

MU also notched a kill-shot run early on. Or is it more accurate to say that Caleb Grill was the triggerman? When the sixth-year senior checked in, he reeled off 10 points. Carolina gulped a brief bit of air on a fastbreak. But then Jacob Crews canned 3-balls on successive possessions, followed by Grill scoring off a live-ball turnover to make it 29-13 with 10:15 until half time. 

What was briefly dispiriting was watching the Gamecocks linger after some defensive mistakes and poor checkouts by MU. And over the final four minutes of the half, the Gamecocks exploited the Tigers’ default switching to matchup Collin Murray-Boyles on Anthony Robinson. (That’s the third time an opponent has done so in four games, too. The scout is out.) So, it made sense that there was some mild frustration for MU to only�lead by 17 points at intermission.�

However, the Tigers made the opening minutes of the second half drama-free. 

Tony Perkins scored on a dump-off. Anthony Robinson II blew by Nick Pringle during an early-clock cross-match for a drink. A trip late, Robinson knocked down an elbow pull-up out of a high pick-and-roll. Then, he stripped a cutter on defense, triggering a break punctuated by the first of several Tamar Bates dunks. 

Indeed, Murray-Boyles feasted for a couple of minutes after that, finishing the night with 27 points on 10 of 11 shooting to go with seven rebounds. But a rudimentary vetting of Cocky told us that CMB tends to get his numbers. Beyond Murray-Boyles, though, only one other Gamecock cleared double figures, and it took eightplayers to scratch 27 points together. If anything, Tuesday reinforced the flaws in coach Lamont Paris’ roster refresh: he has nobody else who can routinely supplement a player who is likely off to the NBA in June. 

That’s not a conundrum for Gates. 

Almost any lineup that graced the floor reaped a windfall – even if the start seemed a tad sluggish. And the two lineups that logged two minutes and minus-2 scoring margins came with Marques Warrick on the floor. The Northern Kentucky transfer occasionally offers some offensive punch. Still, he can be targeted on the defensive end or make an error out of effort – like over-rotating to a driver and leaving a shooter open. 

Evidence of MU’s casual dominance is finally easy to spot when you look at positional performance. Spoiler: everyone but Warrick had a great night.

This graphic is the kind of visual we’d expect to see after a buy game in December. That’s not a flippant quip, either. MU posted a plus-46.4 net rating during normal time – comparable to routing Alabama State or Long Island. 

Sam Snelling used his charts in Study Hall to nicely encapsulate the balance MU showcased, and this chart underlines a conclusion printed in bold.

Waxing poetic or gushing about individual stat lines also seems unnecessary. The Tigers entered this game as a 13-point favorite. They were expected to coast and did so by pulling on the levers you’d expect: dominating ball-handling, attacking the rim, and spreading offensive output around a 10-man rotation. 

No, it wasn’t a rout from the opening tip, but something is calming about watching this team methodically take apart a top-75 opponent. And if you’re candid, that ease was probably the best balm after a what we saw in Fayetteville. For 30 minutes, the Tigers behaved like a top-15 team should when confronted with a weaker opponent. 

Admittedly, it won’t make the closing stretch any less tricky. 

Sure, ESPN’s BPI model, which has had a bad couple of weeks, indicates MU has the easiest closing stretch in the SEC. That’s relative. Vanderbilt’s likely in the field after a road win at Texas A&M, but the Commodores would gladly take another Quad-1A win on the team sheet. Then comes a trip to Norman, where any resuscitation of at-large hopes rests on upsetting an old Big Eight rival. Then, there’s the season finale against Kentucky – a tilt between two teams angling for a protected seed next month.

If the Tigers showed signs of enjoying their press clippings a bit too much over the weekend, Tuesday’s encounter could be a sign that they’ve locked back in. That renewed focus might make the short-term hit to optics worthwhile in the long run.