The Missouri men’s basketball team has held a halftime lead twice in eight games.
“We need to do a better job early in games,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said. “We need to execute better.”
Anderson said there is “no question” things should be picking up sooner in games. His Tigers (4-4) are being outhustled and outplayed early on. They have been outscored by 50 points in the game’s first 20 minutes.
Anderson referenced the missed free throws, missed offensive rebounds and bad passes by his team early in games.
“We put ourselves in holes so many times just by making silly mistakes,” Anderson said. “We have to transfer what we do in practice over to a game.”
Sophomore forward Johnathan Williams III said that the Tigers must spend time in practice figuring out how to set the tone in games, instead of letting their opponents set the tone for them.
“We need to learn how to come out as a team and throw the first punch instead of being punched first,” Williams said.
University of Missouri-Kansas City threw the first punch in Mizzou’s first game, outscoring Missouri by nine in the first half of its Nov. 14 win over the Tigers. Southeast Missouri State led the Tigers by six at halftime before nearly pulling off an upset Dec. 2. This time a second half comeback by Mizzou helped them recover the game from SEMO.
“Sometimes we’re a little too cool for school,” Anderson said. “That’s a habit we have to break. If we don’t play hard, and if we don’t play with great energy, then we aren’t going to win.”
Mizzou faced Purdue in its second game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational on Nov. 25. The unranked Boilermakers outscored the Tigers by 25 in the first half. The Tigers won the second half by four points, but at that point, the game was far out of reach.
“We can’t just wait around and just think we’re going to turn it on, because that’s not going to happen,” Anderson said. “It didn’t happen versus Purdue.”
Mizzou showed hope early on against No. 22 Oklahoma last Friday. The Tigers jumped out to an early lead, and didn’t give it up until nearly midway through the first half.
The Tigers came out with energy and a fast pace against Oklahoma, something that senior guard Keith Shamburger said falls on him as the point guard and ball handler of the team. Shamburger likes to come out with a full-court press early on to apply pressure.
“We just try and put more pressure on them and try and get into their passing lanes,” Shamburger said. “We can’t start games no more with us getting punched first. We got knocked out in Purdue. We just can’t do that no more. We’ve just got to learn from this stuff and keep going.”
Anderson attributes his team’s slow starts to the inexperience on his roster. Mizzou only has two seniors, and multiple freshmen have been seeing extended playing time.
“The one thing about this team is that with so many young guys, we need that guy to step up and be a leader — not one of the young guys, but one of the older guys,” Anderson said. “We haven’t been able to get that established, and that’s not a criticism of anyone. We need that emotional leader.”
Shamburger said emotion is often the topic during Anderson’s timeout conversations with the team.
“I think we’re all emotional, just at different times,” Shamburger said.
Though the Tigers have only won half of their games, they have outscored their opponents by 30 combined points in the second halves. As recently as last Friday, Mizzou outscored Oklahoma 28-26 in the game’s final 10 minutes.
“It’s a lot easier to play when there’s a gap like that,” Anderson said.
He said his players have discussed all the possible causes of the slow starts, even going as far as to look at the way they prepare for games
“We have every amenity that you could need to prepare for a game,” Anderson said. “You got good food, you got a good strength coach, you got trainers, you got all the stuff you need to prepare for a game. At some point, maybe you better look in the mirror at yourself as a player.”
Regardless of the cause, Anderson said his team needs to stay tough whether winning, or losing.
“You’ve got to fight off that first punch,” Anderson said. “Whether or not we can apply it or not, we’ve just got to make sure we don’t get knocked down.”