No. 15 Missouri has rolled to a 15-0 record at home while emerging as the surprise team of the Southeastern Conference.
The Tigers (17-5, 6-3 SEC) will have their hands full with No. 10 Texas A&M on Saturday in Columbia, Mo. Standout guard Wade Taylor IV is back to full strength and top form for the Aggies (17-5, 6-3), who have won four of their last five games.
Taylor poured in 25 points as the Aggies won 76-72 at South Carolina last weekend. After missing four games earlier this season due to an undisclosed injury, Taylor shot just 28.9 percent overall and 26.9 percent from 3-point range in the first four games of his return.
Then Taylor lit up the Gamecocks with 7-for-10 shooting from 3-point range. Aggies coach Buzz Williams credited Taylor’s strong overall play, not just his shooting, for leading the team to the road victory.
“I am very aware of his ability as a quarterback — not just to make plays for himself. He creates a peace and a calmness that his teammates rely on,” Williams said. “The whole program is aware of the impact that he has.
“We refer to it as time, score, momentum. We did a really good job — and he orchestrates 97 percent of, are we all on the same page? His willingness to do that, in addition to the talent he has, is a combination that is very rare.”
Taylor leads the Aggies with 15.1 points and 4.4 assists per game. Fellow guard Zhuric Phelps averages 14.8 points and 5.1 rebounds.
“I do not necessarily think that we have the best players,” Williams said. “I actually think our players receive that we are not the best individual players. I think it is the power of all of us. It is a cumulative effort.”
Missouri built a 34-28 halftime lead at No. 4 Tennessee on Wednesday, then hung around when the heavily favored Volunteers reached a higher offensive gear. Missouri lost 85-81, but its NET ranking improved from 19 to 18.
“I’m proud of our guys,” Tigers coach Dennis Gates said. “We still had a great game.”
Gates saw room for improvement in his team’s narrow loss to a potential No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“When a team gets hot, you’ve got to minimize their second-chance points, which we did not do,” Gates said. “When they missed it, we didn’t recover the rebound.
“And then the other part of it is executing in the one-and-ones on our side when we get to the free throw line. Tamar Bates, one of the best free throw shooters in the country, wasn’t able to execute the front end of a bonus twice. So that’s four points, possibly, that was left on the board.”
Bates (13.9 points per game), fellow guard Caleb Grill (13.1) and forward Mark Mitchell (12.4) pace Missouri in scoring. The Tigers feature uncommon depth, which Gates exploited Wednesday while deploying 13 players.
With starting guard Anthony Robinson II limited to six minutes at Tennessee due to foul trouble, reserves Marques Warrick and T.O. Barrett combined to produce 12 points and three assists in 17 minutes.
“Ant Robinson is very important to us,” Gates said. “He picked up two fouls in the backcourt alone and when you do that, that puts your team at a disadvantage. And he can’t take those risks that he’s taking in the backcourt to try to get a steal or the physicality or extra possession.”
–Field Level Media
