Missouri Tigers Get Pummeled By Kentucky

The Missouri Tigers dropped to 7-9 and 1-2 in SEC play after being clobbered by top ranked Kentucky on Tuesday night, 86-37. The 49 point differential was Mizzou’s worst loss since the 1997-1998 season where they were destroyed 111-56 by Kansas State.

Jan 13, 2015; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Karl-Anthony Towns (12) rebounds the ball against Missouri Tigers forward Keanau Post (45) in the first half at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

In their first nationally televised game, the undersized Tigers were no match for a Kentucky team that dominated in every facet of the game. Mizzou was manhandled on the glass by the Wildcats’ future NBA front court and were out-rebounded 46-27.

The Tigers’ had an abysmal shooting performance going 16-59 (27.1%) from the field and 1-18 (5.6%) from three. Couple that with eight free throws, zero in the first half, and Missouri winds up with only 37 points.

Watching the game, Missouri did a good fundamentally sound game, but the shots were just not falling. Leading scorer Jonathan Williams III started the game 0-10 and finished with just three points, and two rebounds.

20 of the 37 points came from Wes Clark and Keanau Post, who had 10 apiece. Post was the only consistent scorer and had eight early on going 5-8 from the field, but foul trouble really limited his playing time.

After Kentucky blocked a couple shots early on in the game, it set the tone and might have spooked Missouri driving in the lane. There were a couple of occasions where while attempting a layup, and it almost looked like they anticipated the shot being blocked, thus several did not fall.

It’s hard to give a game MVP to any one player on Kentucky because they played in perfect unison. Aaron Harrison had a game high 16 points, but the story was the frontcourt of Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson bulling Missouri down-low.

Jan 13, 2015; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Willie Cauley-Stein (15) rebounds the ball against Missouri Tigers forward Keanau Post (45) in the second half at Rupp Arena. The Kentucky Wildcats defeated the Missouri Tigers 86-37. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sportsprobably wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

Kentucky is just better than Missouri right now. They have better personnel than the Tigers, and John Calipari is the master of creating the best lineup situations. This is less of an indictment against Missouri and more of what Kentucky basketball is at their finest.

Teki Gill-Casear missed his third consecutive game, and while the freshman does an ability to create good shots, he probably wouldn’t have made that big of a difference. Kentucky, feeling disrespected after not being the unanimous No.1 ranked team in the AP poll, took their anger out on Missouri.

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There have been flashes of progression these past five games, but now Missouri will have to really come together and

refuse to be totally outmatched like this again. Maybe a good ol’ butt-kicking by the top ranked team will eventually be good for Kim Anderson’s squad.

The Tigers are off until Saturday, so they have plenty of time to create a good gameplan and absorb this loss. Missouri hosts Tennessee, who is coming off a surprising win against No.19 Arkansas. While it won’t be Kentucky, Mizzou will still need to bring their “A” game against the Vols.

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