Study Hall: South Carolina 76, Mizzou 54

When a game is close it’s easier to dissect. In a close loss you can pick apart the minutiae of the numbers to try and discern which one thing could’ve gone slightly better to give Mizzou the edge.

In a game like this, where you lose by 22 points, the reason is clearer and it makes these posts more difficult. You can pick up the stat sheet and basically just throw it out. One team was clearly better, shot better, defended better and over the course of 40 minutes, it became a blowout.

So instead of an intense look at each set like we usually do, let’s talk about what’s really the issue with this team and program and how it came to manifest in an ugly 20+ point loss to a South Carolina team, who’s playing better, but still were barely inside the top 100 in KenPom at the start of the day.