Missouri men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin rearranged the starting lineup for the first time this season and the results were overwhelmingly positive in a 102-98 overtime win over TCU.
The Tigers’ new starting five produced 97 points, as senior forward Jeremiah Tilmon and junior guard Xaiver Pinson raced each other to set the game-high in points. The latter of the two came out on top with 36 points, the first 35-plus point outing since Thomas Gardner put up 40 against Kansas in 2006, while the former scored his own career-high with 33.
The two-headed scoring threat, usual starters Dru Smith and Kobe Brown and recently promoted starter Javon Pickett mixed together like peanut butter and jelly. They combined to shoot 59.6% from the field and attempted all but four of the team’s total shots.
“We know that their ball screen defense had a big just in the lane,” Pinson said. “But as far as that, we attack every ball screen or every offense the same, and I feel like today is is kind of worked out.”
The five aforementioned players each played a bulk of the minutes on Saturday and exceeded 30 minutes of court time apiece. All of them played crucial roles in the comeback victory as the team stormed back from an 82-70 deficit with 4:40 remaining in regulation.
Pinson’s career-best performance is not surprising for those who have paid attention to some of the Chicago native’s best performances from his last 12 months of basketball.
In Pinson’s last 25 outings dating back to Feb. 1, 2020, he has reached the double-figure points milestone in 18 of those contests. The difference between Pinson’s good performances and his great performances is how well he shoots from deep.
On Saturday, he could not miss from 3-point land.
“He’s one of those guys who practices all the time driving the ball, shooting threes,” Martin said. “He’s at his best when he’s shooting rhythm threes and he made some tough ones tonight. He’s one of those guys that never really get tired.”
Pinson went 8-13 from beyond the arc, including a crucial 4-point play with 2:40 left to make it a two-possession game and a game-saving triple with 3.8 ticks on the clock to send it to overtime.
“If I get a shot, I gotta make this shot,” Pinson said, recalling his game-tying shot. “That’s really it. That’s all that was going through my head.”
While Pinson was a crucial cog in the comeback effort in the fourth quarter, Tilmon ensured the Tigers started out the game on the right foot.
The big man from East St. Louis, Illinois. connected on his first eight field goal attempts of the game, which converted into 17 points by the halftime break.
Tilmon’s ease at getting to the basket was the result of TCU’s peculiar strategy of having its junior center Kevin Samuel defend him one-on-one in the post, a strategy that shocked Tilmon since he usually receives special attention near the basket.
“I was surprised they didn’t double so I just just kept doing what he was doing,” Tilmon said. “I don’t want to get doubles, of course, but I was expecting it at some point.”
Once Samuel fouled out at the 3:07 mark in the second half, Tilmon drew fouls and converted over smaller big men in the final minutes of regulation and overtime.
“That was really the only hope they had in guarding Tilly,” Pinson said. “When he went out, it was just SOS from there.”
Games like these have become the norm for Tilmon. This is his fifth double-double in conference play and he has established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the Southeastern Conference and contender for an all-conference nod.
Martin said he’s seen a different Tilmon since his game-winning basket over Bradley on Dec. 22, which featured a last-ditch comeback effort similar against the Horned Frogs on Saturday. The change in mentality and confidence makes itself known both in how Tilmon has performed on a nightly basis and in how Missouri’s offense is run.
“I think he changed his mindset and realized ‘I’m just as good as any big’ and he’s as strong as anybody,” Martin said.
Smith, the reigning SEC Player of the Week, didn’t have his best performance against TCU, but his presence was needed in the worst way in the second half.
Smith only checked in for six minutes in the first half, a product of two early fouls. When Smith was on the bench, TCU could’nt miss. When he was on the bench for the final 7:16 of the first half, TCU dropped 20 points on the Tigers on 10-12 shooting to make it a 43-38 lead going into half.
The Horned Frogs continued to light up the scoreboard even when Smith was on the court for all 20 minutes of the second half, but he didn’t pick up another foul until there were less than two minutes on the clock, which was vital for getting him to the finish line.
When Missouri started to heat up and mount its comeback effort with a little less than five minutes remaining, TCU missed four consecutive field goals for the first time all game and the Tigers jumped on the opportunity and made up the deficit.
However, outside of career performances and defensive stoppers, Martin’s MVP on Saturday was Brown.
Martin has a lot of confidence in Brown, a sophomore forward and the youngest member of the starting five, even though he doesn’t put up gaudy numbers. Brown validated Martin’s confidence with a career-high 13 rebounds to go along with seven points and several hustle plays in crunch time.
“The way he was relentless on the glass, getting deflections, defending, rebounding, doing the little things, keeping balls alive, you don’t really get rewarded for that,” Martin said. “I’m happy for the team but really happy for him.”
Brown’s biggest rebound came in the closing moments of the game when he corralled a rebound off a Smith missed 3-point attempt that Tilmon tried to grab for a dunk. In the heat of the moment, Brown made the smart kick-out to a wide-open Pinson for one last shot.
“I knew we needed it three so when Tilly missed the tip and I got the ball, I was looking around to find someone and I heard Xavier calling me,” Brown said. “I just turned around and gave him the ball and he knocked it down.”
Even though senior guard Mark Smith had a reprieve from starting duties, Martin was adamant that his move to insert Pickett, who scored 11 points on 5-11 shooting in 34 minutes of action, was not something that was permanent.
In fact, Martin had enough confidence in Mark Smith to send him out on the court in the midst of the comeback, where he buried a 3-pointer —the only made field goal by a member of Missouri’s bench —to make it a one-possession game.
Martin has said in the past that just because someone is starting does not mean they are more valuable than any other player on the team, and when the team’s ability to switch things up is successful, it is evidence of a team ready-built to finish SEC play strong.
“No one on the team really cares about who starts or whatever,” Brown said. “We gotta look at it like just the first five that get in the game. We just want to win, so whoever he puts out there, whoever comes off the bench it’s all the same.”
_Edited by Jack Soble | jsoble@themaneater.com_
