At the end of the first half of Missouri’s men’s basketball’s exhibition game against William Jewell on Oct. 29, Missouri coach Kim Anderson decided to mess with his lineup.
He put three guards on the floor, and the Division II Cardinals scored eight straight points to end the half.
“It wasn’t good,” Anderson said.
Anderson came back to his three-guard lineup later in the game and saw improvement. He said he wants to come back to it more as the season progresses, using it as his “smaller lineup.”
“I like it because you get ball handlers into the game,” Anderson said. “Now, you give up size. The one question for this team is how well will we shoot the ball. We have good shooters, but they’ve got to take good shots.”
In the second half, the Tigers made shots, increasing their 13-point halftime lead to a 72-31 blowout win when time expired. Fourteen Mizzou points in the win came from sophomore guard Wes Clark, who said he enjoys Anderson’s three-guard set.
“It makes things a lot easier for me knowing that I can play offense,” Clark said. “Keith Shamburger, Tramaine Isabell and some of the other guards can create for themselves, so it makes me into more of a jump-shooter or a scorer if needed.”
And Anderson likes to see his point guard being aggressive on offense, as long as he makes good decisions with the ball. Clark, who averaged 4.1 points per game last season as a freshman, paired his team-leading 14 points against William Jewell with 8 points in another exhibition against Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday.
“Wes being aggressive is important,” Anderson said. “We need to find scoring. We need for guys to step up and be aggressive on the offensive end, which they should love to hear that.”
But the three-guard set does not just affect the guards. Senior forward Keanu Post said the lineup helps the offense improve in general, and the big men, like himself. Redshirt senior guard Keith Shamburger is leading the Tigers with 10 assists through the first two exhibition games.
“It helps the bigs a lot because we have three perimeter guys on the outside feeding us the ball,” Post said. “More than likely we’ll have a mismatch with a big and a three-guard, but it’s beneficial (for the) team. I trust whatever coach wants to do.”
This play-to-the-post mentality has been a focus of Anderson’s offense this year. Last year the Tigers played lots of pick-and-roll and isolation plays, with guards Jordan Clarkson and Jabari Brown mainly dominating the ball.
“We’re going to throw the ball inside,” Anderson said. “I expect those (big men) to be an important part of our offense. They have to do a good job of not only scoring themselves, but remembering just because we throw it in, that doesn’t mean they can’t throw it back out (to the guards).”
Clark said the increased emphasis on post play allows the offense to be more patient.
Anderson said the big key to the three-guard set is them knocking down their shots. The coaches take statistics of every shot taken every day, Anderson said.
“We’ve had days where we’ve shot the ball really well, and we’ve had days where we haven’t,” Anderson said. “The three guards together — all three of them are good shooters. If they want to be great shooters, then they’ve got to get to their spot and get a good shot.”
Anderson sees himself using the three-guard lineup situationally, such as against teams that will press on defense frequently.
Anderson said that, when using the three-guard lineup in practice, Clark has assumed point guard duties.
“I’ve got three guards, and I’m happy with all of them,” Anderson said. “I won’t hesitate to play all three of them at the same time.”