MU Women fall to Kansas
By Adam Stillman
For any Missouri player or fan, a game against arch-rival Kansas is immediately circled on the calendar. It’s the biggest game of the season. And for women’s basketball, there are actually two games played in a home-and-home format. After being run out of Phog Allen Fieldhouse on January 17 to the tune of a 13-point drubbing, one would think that Missouri would be fired up to return the favor when the Jayhawks came to Mizzou Arena.
Not so fast. In front of a season-high crowd of 3,179, Mizzou looked sluggish from the start, never led and ended up losing 61-59 after an Amanda Hanneman three-point attempt fell short at the buzzer. With the defeat, Mizzou falls to 11-9 overall and 1-6 in the Big 12. The road doesn’t get any easier for the Tigers. MU travels to No. 12 Texas A&M to take on the Aggies on Wednesday night.
Here are some thoughts on the Missouri at this point in the season:
- Missouri can’t shoot. The Tigers rank 11th in the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 66.1 points per game. MU is last in field goal percentage (39%) and three-point field goal percentage (30.7%). Against Kansas, Missouri shot 36 percent from the floor and 19 percent from behind the arc. That is just plain terrible. Maybe the team needs to spend more time shooting in practice. If Missouri wants to have any success, its shots better start falling.
- However, it’s not like they don’t get the chances. Missouri ranks 1st in offensive rebounding (15.45 per game) and 2nd in turnover margin (+5.15 a game). Granted, a team that misses as many shots as Missouri will have more opportunities for offensive rebounds than does a team that hits its shots. But, the Tigers do a great job of taking care of the ball. Against KU, Missouri only turned the ball over ten times while forcing the Jayhawks into 22 turnovers. Toy Richbow and RaeShara Brown combine to create a formidable backcourt. While the two don’t score a lot of points, they both do the little things that make the team better.
- Jessra Johnson continues to step up her game. In the past four contests, Missouri’s leading scorer has averaged 16.5 points per game. Johnson has the tendency to slack off at times but when her head is in the game, she can be very difficult to stop. Her shot selection is questionable at times, witnessed by her 36 percent shooting on the season, but she might be the only Mizzou player with a real ability to create her own shot.
- Missouri remains inconsistent. Twenty games into the season and I still have a tough time figuring this team out. Some nights it seems as if they can play with anybody in the country. Other nights it’s as if they don’t want to be there. Missouri followed up a nice week (beating then-No. 10 Baylor and losing by one -point to then-No. 13 Oklahoma) with a disappointing 15-point loss to then-No. 15 Oklahoma State and a lackluster defeat to unranked Kansas. This team remains a mystery.
