Things to watch for: Missouri Edition *Post Game Analysis*

[tyleradkins]

By: Tyler Adkins

The Cats were able to gut out a gritty, veteran like win tonight in overtime over the Missouri Tigers 90-83 tonight in the best environment Rupp Arena has seen all season. The Cats were down 13 early in the first half but fought back and picked up their best win of the year in a thrilling game that saw the players play with fire, passion and poise throughout most of the game. With that, let’s get to the grades:

*Home Court Pride

I said the Rupp Arena crowd should be able to help this team get a win and it didn’t disappoint. The crowd was electric all night long and the players clearly fed off of that energy. We saw players diving for loose balls, pumping their chests and, wait for it, smiling. They looked like they were having a great time playing basketball tonight and that is something that has been missing from this team all season. The players pumped the crowd up at every opportunity and it was truly a great game and atmosphere.

Grade: A+

*Containing the guards

Jabari Brown and Phil Pressey were major concerns coming into the game and Pressey showed why tonight. The guard had 27 points and 10 assists in a great performance and the Cats couldn’t seem to contain him until right at the end. Poythress had a terrific block at regulation when he was caught one on one with the much quicker Pressey but came up with the play that ultimately was one of the deciding factors in the game. Then the Cats forced Pressey into a turnover near the end of overtime that put the game out of reach after two Poythress free throws. Brown was largely a non-factor tonight and the Cats were terrific on defense holding him to just 7 points. It was a give and take effort tonight on defense by the Cats but they stepped up when they needed to.

Grade: B+

*Own the glass

I thought the Cats needed to hold Missouri to less than 10 offensive rebounds tonight in order to get the win. They exceeded that number in the first half. Still, Missouri was only able to get 15 offensive rebounds for the game that went into overtime and the Cats were able to tie the Tigers in rebounds with 37 a piece. The Cats rebounded much better in the second half and overtime and didn’t allow Missouri to play volleyball as much as they did in the first half. Everyone rebounded well tonight and 4 of the 5 starters had at least 6 rebounds with Cauley-Stein leading the way with 12.

Grade: A-

It was a season making win tonight for the Cats if they can keep this momentum going throughout the rest of the season. If the Cats play the way they did tonight for the rest of the season then it is an entirely different ballgame going forward. Calipari said this team can be the story of the year, and at least tonight, they showed why.

[dan_bgblue]

I think those are fair grades, but thank goodness they play two halves.