One reason to carve out time to rewatch Missouri is to find an inflection point.
A substation that altered the alchemy of a lineup just enough. A schematic tweak that made an opponent’s flaw fatal. Maybe a sliding doors moment where the outcome of a play shifted the balance.
When did it occur during Saturday’s 80-60 loss?
The instant MU’s starting five against Kansas popped up on StatBroadcast. Sure enough, the Tigers made a swap – just not the one you wanted to see. The jumbo lineup was back with Annor Boateng replacing Sebastian Mack.
As soon as I saw it, I suspected the result of the Border War could only go one way.
Coach Dennis Gates and his staff persisted with an approach that has flailed against high-major opposition. The only intrigue – and not even mild – was how long the Mizzou could forestall the inevitable. The answer: one half.
The Tigers spent long stretches of the first half guarding with tenacity and consistency. They squeezed out offense on the occasional secondary break, crashing the glass, and on some in-bounds plays. Yet the Jayhawks and Bill Self didn’t need radical adjustments to asphyxiate MU in the half-court. They just did their jobs, and slowly, KU pried open an eight-point edge going into the locker room.
They also wasted little time flaying the Tigers’ preferred lineup after the break. They ripped off an 11-1 run, capped by Melvin Council Jr. breezing through MU’s transition defense for a three-point play to make it 44-26 with 17:02 left.
It should also mark the time of death for starting Mark Mitchell, Jevon Porter and Shawn Phillips Jr. You can see the substation pattern below and do the math, but I’ll spare you. The triumvirate logged 9:14 of playing time and posted a minus-17 scoring margin.
I’ll spare you an autopsy exploring why that group flailed last week. Don’t worry, though. Matt Watkins has compiled ample data and 23 clips for his next edition of The Verdict. I’ve touched on it sporadically after the Tigers rallied against Minnesota and explored other chapters of the playbook against South Dakota. On Sunday, there was an accounting of how these lineup choices are squeezing Sebastian Mack. And on Monday night, we used an episode of Dive Cuts to air grievances.
All that’s left is to monitor whether Gates and the staff persist.
It’s what made Boateng’s insertion so quizzical. The sophomore is a power driver, not a secondary creator. Moreover, his handle still needs more tightening to be trustworthy when attacking compacted gaps this lineup invites. Coupled with Boateng’s absent shooting, I’m not sure how his presence makes it any better.
And the first subs off the bench? T.O. Barrett and Nicholas Randall, neither of whom is a shooter, and the latter is a freshman with a 10.7 percent usage rate. But somehow, the Tigers guarded well enough to trigger some runouts and steadily nurture an 18-14 lead with 9:33 left in the first half. Then, MU reverted to Mitchell, Porter and Phillips again.
After scoring 18 points in its first 15 possessions, the Tigers only mustered seven in their final 17 trips of the first half. Quick accounting shows MU scored nine points on secondary breaks and early-clock attacks. By contrast, they only scrounged up six points from running actual half-court offense.
Obviously, KU deserves plaudits for its handiwork. Yet it was also disconcerting to watch the Tigers trudge through sets marked by sloppy screening, mistimed cuts, forcing drives into gaps occupied by awaiting help defenders, and failing to seal off defenders around the rim.
The Tigers’ oxygen levels were critically low when halftime arrived. Still, there was a way back – if defensive engagement persisted and the staff parked Phillips in favor of spacing fives. Instead, they ran it back. You can see what followed in the clips below.
Kansas put Jevon Porter through a blender of switches, freeing Tre White to slip into the dunker spot unnoticed. Shawn Phillips followed that by offering a soft hedge on a dribble handoff, leaving Annor Boateng no chance of catching up to Darryn Peterson. MU then arrived late on a rotation after a skip out of a trap, and Melvin Council capped the sequence by knifing through the Tigers’ transition defense for a three-point play.
It was an untidy little sampler that also left the Tigers’ in damage control with 16 minutes left.
Eventually, MU got around to subbing in Mack, who spent the first 25 minutes watching, a floor spacer in Crews, and a stretch five in Luke Northweather. Within three minutes, that group cobbled together an 11-4 run that sliced KU’s lead down to 56-43 with 10 minutes remaining. Additionally, Mitchell had spent almost three minutes on the bench recharging. In an alternate universe, Gates would have lifted Porter for Mitchell.
Instead, he tapped Mitchell to re-enter for Northweather. KU popped off a 6-2 spurt and expanded the lead back to 17 points. The chance to ratchet up game pressure passed, and Self’s crew practiced margin maintenance for the final eight minutes.
Looking over how lineups fared sets teeth on edge. Two iterations of the jumbo group finished with a minus-15 margin after 7:30 of action. Framed optimistically, MU spent the other 32 minutes playing its rival to within two possessions and two points less than the forecasted margin.
Bluntly, the decision to roll out this starting five again meant MU was playing from behind before a ref tossed the ball.
Position performance tells a similar story. The Tigers were 11 points better with Mitchell at his natural ‘boss’ spot than with him occupying the wing. They were plus-2 in Northweather’s roughly 10 minutes at the five. And plus-1 in the 24:13 that Crews logged as a wing.
Nothing we saw on Saturday exposed some hidden flaw. It simply reinforced the baffling nature of MU’s commitment to the bit. This wasn’t a stress test. It underlined again how jumbo lineups constrict the floor, collapsing possessions under pressure, and pushing off lineups that let the Tigers’ best players inhale.
When this team spreads the floor and slots playmakers in their natural roles, they look functional – even resilient. The question isn’t whether a better blueprint exists. It’s whether MU is ready to leave one that isn’t working in a dustbin.
It’s also easy to forget that MU has time – albeit a smaller allotment – but the margin is small enough now that it can’t accommodate stubbornness. The evidence is there. The adjustment now must follow.