For two hours on Saturday, Missouri purged its recent struggles against South Carolina, a 78-63 victory that also served as a much needed cathartic release for Kevin Puryear and Torrence Watson.
For the better part of two months, we’ve lamented Puryear’s plight, a span where the senior stalwart’s offensive games been drifting aimlessly in the doldrums. The Blue Springs came into the day shooting just 39.3 percent and hadn’t cracked double-figures in SEC play this season. During the past three seasons, we’ve seen Puryear’s overall efficiency dip as he took on a complementary role in the rotation, but I’ll admit that I was surprised that it had been almost two years since he scored more than 13 points in a conference game.