The Missouri Tigers ended their 2021-22 campaign today in Tampa, Florida, losing to the LSU Tigers 76-68. For a more detailed game story, go take a look at the article from Mickey Doolittle. Here, let’s take a look at Mizzou’s season as a whole, and where they find themselves after a disappointing season.
Mizzou ends the year with a record of 12-21, going 6-14 in SEC play. Half of those conference wins came against one opponent, Ole Miss. It is the first 20-loss season for Missouri since 2016-2017, the last year Kim Anderson was head coach.
This season cannot be looked at as anything but an overwhelming failure. That record at face value is horrific, but when you factor in how poorly Mizzou played in its biggest games, it gets downright pathetic. Mizzou lost to Kansas, Illinois, and Arkansas, their three biggest rivals, by a combined 125 points in four games. An average margin of defeat of over 30 points to the teams Mizzou should be circling on their schedule. Calling that horrendous would be putting it mildly.
Statistically, the Tigers were just as bad as their record would indicate. On the season they scored 65.2 points per game, shot 42.5% from the field, and shot 27.8% from beyond the arc. All of these rank dead last in the SEC, and that three-point shooting is the worst in school history. According to Kenpom, Missouri was the 160th-ranked offense and 131st-ranked defense in the country.
While the negatives far outweigh the positives, pretending this season was without highlights would be foolish. Mizzou’s home win over No. 15 Alabama in early January was a dominant performance. Mizzou Arena held its largest crowd and provided its best environment in recent memory against No. 1 Auburn when they came to town later that month. The Tigers kept in it all game long, eventually dropping a one-point decision to a team who is likely going to be a top seed. Even though Ole Miss isn’t a very good team, beating them three times in one season certainly is impressive. It’s extremely difficult to be a team three times in one season, no matter the circumstances.
On an individual basis, Mizzou did not get the scoring production on a consistent level from anyone not named Kobe Brown. Even he, it could be argued, didn’t bring everything to the table that he could have. Brown finished the season averaging 12.7 points and 7.8 rebounds a game. In his first season playing without Jeremiah Tilmon, he stepped up as this team’s go-to big man all season long, offensively and defensively.
Javon Pickett ends this season averaging 11 points on the nose. The senior guard has a decision to make. Due to new NCAA policies, he has the option to come back for a 5th season of eligibility because the 2020 season was cut short. I asked him after the game if he had given any consideration to staying, but he said that his mind was still on the loss and he hadn’t had any time to think that through yet.
Trevon Brazile emerged this season as a premier defensive force in the SEC. In his postgame press conference last night, head coach Cuonzo Martin expressed his surprise that Brazile didn’t get more respect this season.
“There’s no question, he should have been an all-league guy as a freshman, and we have some great ones in this league, but he should have been one of them,” Martin said.
Brazile had a very successful freshman year. He averaged 6.3 points, 5 rebounds, and just shy of 2 blocks per game. Down the stretch his play kept improving, including his career high 15 points tonight. He is the centerpiece, the core that Mizzou needs to build around going forward. His athleticism and length can make this offense lethal if they can surround him with shooters.
Now time to address the elephant in the room, will Cuonzo Martin be back on the bench coaching for the Tigers next year? I think that presents two different questions. The first is SHOULD he be back? I think the obvious answer is no. The next is WILL he be back? I think that remains to be seen. Athletic Director Desiree Reed-Francois has been asked about Martin’s future on several occasions, and her answer has not changed. She says that they will handle it in the offseason. Well, the offseason is here, and there is no putting this off any longer.
If Martin is to be kept on for next season, I think he needs to make a massive push in recruiting. That’s where this all falls flat, and is the core for Mizzou’s struggles. They have not recruited well the last few seasons. Yes, Brazile is exceeding expectations early in his career, but there have been a lot more misses than hits. Sean Durugordon, Jordan Wilmore, and Yaya Keita have all been massively disappointing, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The transfer portal makes it so that recruiting doesn’t have to be exclusive to incoming freshmen. A successful offseason recruiting from the portal could mean an instant turnaround. Boogie Coleman, Dajuan Gordon, Ronnie Degray, and Amari Davis are all transfer portal guys. There can be more. There have to be more.
If I were to pick one word to describe this Missouri Men’s Basketball season, it would be frustration. This team wasn’t supposed to be great – they weren’t supposed to be a tournament team like last year – but they still found plenty of ways to frustrate their fans game-in and game-out. Whether it was inconsistent play, sloppy turnovers, bad shooting, or not fouling down by 1 point to Auburn, Mizzou frustrated people all season. But it’s behind us, and the time is now to look forward. Keep Trevon Brazile in a Tiger uniform, bring in talent around him, develop Aiden Shaw, and commit to a coach. Those are the keys to the offseason, and if they can stick to those, next year should be much less frustrating.