Hoopin’ and Hollerin: Time for a bounce back week

Nov 10, 2024 | Uncategorized

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Missouri guard Ashton Judd (24) talks with her teammates before Missouri basketball’s matchup against Southern University on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024 at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia. | (MICHAEL BANIEWICZ/ROCK M NATION)

What can the Tigers do to calm nerves from week 1

After a rocky 2023-24 season for Mizzou WBB, the first week was a poor “welcome back” for Coach Pingeton’s squad. While the Tigers finished week one at 1-1, it came in a double-digit road loss to Vermont and a closer-than-expected win against Southern.

Now the Tigers face a similar road ahead, this time a pair of home games plus one on the road, all against mid majors.

Here’s my main takeaway from the past week plus a look ahead to all three opponents on the docket for Mizzou.

My Takeaway: Increased Offensive Depth Needed


(MICHAEL BANIEWICZ/ROCK M NATION)
Missouri guard Averi Kroenke (21) looks for an open teammate to pass to during Missouri basketball’s matchup against Southern University on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024 at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia.

Last season, Mizzou averaged 71 points thanks to four scorers in double digits. Of those four, Ashton Judd and Grace Slaughter returned and have continued to put up similar numbers. In addition, transfer Laniah Randle has joined the fray with 11.5 points across her two games.

Outside of those big three, the team has struggled to put up points in the first two matchups. Right now the Tigers have are averaging 56 points in each of their first two games, with 37 coming from that trio.

With the depth on this team, there should be no reason that this team should be scoring less than 70 routinely against mid-major opponents. At the end of this I’ll add the player who I think has the most ‘boom’ potential to join the double-digit scorers.

Norfolk State? Is this 2012?!

The first of the three games this week takes many Mizzou basketball fans back on the men’s side back to 2012. But the only thing the same is the logo. Currently, the Spartans sit at 2-0 after home wins against William & Mary and Longwood.

Norfolk State wins through their defense, holding their opponents to 36.3% from the field and 32.5% from deep. As a result the Spartans’ opponents have been able to muster only 55.5 points per game.

Offensively this team is led by grad student Diamond Johnson. After making the Second-Team All-ACC team with NC State two seasons ago, she made the decision to move to Norfolk State for reasons unknown to me. The move clearly worked, as Diamond won the MEAC Newcomer of the Year while making the All-Conference First Team and All-MEAC Defensive Selection. So far this season she scored only 11 against W&M, before turning it up with 32 against Longwood. If Mizzou wants to avoid another upset situation against the Spartans, they HAVE to keep #3 in check.

Ridin’ the Wave

Next on the docket is a Tuesday night matchup with Tulane. So far the Green Wave has only played one game this year, in somewhat of an upset loss to Nicholls 65-63 at home.

A big part of this loss was Tulane’s slow start, falling behind 23-12 after the first 10 minutes. If the Tigers want to blow out their foes from down south, there will likely be a chance to do it early. Another area of struggle for Tulane against Nicholls was the turnover battle. The home team lost the battle 26-15, allowing their opposition to outscore them 25-18 in points off turnovers. It’s well-known that the Tigers struggle with turnover issues themselves, so this game may get sloppy at points.

Perhaps the player to watch in this one is Stony Brook transfer Sherese Pittman. She led the team with 14 points but did it on only three field goals. How you may ask? Well, Pittman worked her way to the line TWELVE times. For reference the rest of the team only got to the line 11 times. Pittman is expected to lead the offense, so Mizzou must avoid the temptation to foul and force her to shoot from the field.

Meeting in Macomb

The Tigers hit the road for the second time this season on Friday, traveling to Macomb, Illinois for a battle against Western Illinois. The strangely-named Leathernecks are 1-0 of the time I write this article after a 45-point win against Culver-Stockton from NAIA.

While it’s hard to have any real takeaways from this sort of matchup, I’ll do my best. One area that stuck out in this game was the mismatch down low. Western Illinois led the matchup 38-6 in terms of points in the paint. At any level, that sort of dominance is eye-popping.

The player leading that charge was leading scorer/rebounder from the game, Raegan McCowan. The Missouri native put on a show with 19 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double to open the year. While only a sophomore, Raegan is already stockpiling awards. Last season she finished on the First Team OVC All-Conference team, Freshman of the Year and All-Ohio Valley New Comer Team. Plus she won the Freshman of the Week award a record 13 times! Missouri’s bigs will certainly have their hands full as they hope to break a seven game road losing streakdating back to last season.

Player to Watch: Nyah Wilson

As I teased earlier, one player who needs to increase their scoring output for the Tigers is Nyah Wilson, the newly appointed starting PG. It has been rough sledding so far with only 6 points on 1-6 shooting, having not quite found her rhythm yet.


(CAL TOBIAS/ROCK M NATION)
Missouri guard Nyah Wilson (8) drives against Truman State guard Katelyn Odem (12) during the first half of a game against Truman State on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at Mizzou Arena.

This extends to her passing, with 6 turnovers to only 4 assists during the first two games. However, the season is still young and there is plenty of time to turn things around. If Mizzou wants to go 3-0 this week against some really good players, they will need some larger performances from their PG both as a scorer and a passer.

The Tigers kick off the week against Norfolk State at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10 (today) at Mizzou Arena on SECN+.

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