How in the world.... - Missouri

There is not one reason outside of the fact that A&M had more points than Missouri when the clock read 00:00 that the Aggies should have won that game last night. In-fact, I am still not sure how they escaped Columbia with a the win 54-51.

As has become the norm with this bunch, they came out of the gates red-hot, went completely brain dead for a long stretch, rallied, found a way to win, and kept us all tuned in.

The Aggies jumped all over the Tigers early taking a 13-7 lead on a Josh Carter 3 from the corner. The teams then traded buckets for a few minutes and A&M still held a 5 point lead (16-11) at the 11:42 mark of the first half when Acie drilled a 3 from the top of the key. This of course is when they went brain dead and missed their next 11 consecutive shots.

They did not score again until Joe knocked down a free throw with 4:18 left in the half (a stretch of over 7 minutes). Before Joe's free throw, they they had allowed Missouri to build a comfortable 26-16 lead. Dominique Kirk however drilled a 3 with 25 seconds left in the half to cut the Tiger lead to 33-28 going into the break and giving the Aggies a little momentum.

Chris Walker hit a 3 right out of the half that cut the Missouri lead to 2 and it looked like the Aggies were going to set up shop. This of course was not the case and would have been too anti-climatic for this group of guys. They instead allowed Missouri to stretch the lead to 10 points again at 47-37 with 11:40 left in the game.

Yes, you are reading that correctly, Missouri had 47 points with 11:40 left in the game and yes, they finished with 51 in total.

A solid combination of good Aggie defense and poor Missouri shooting let the good guys go on a 17-4 run to close out the game and secure the win.

In-fact, Missouri went ahead 51-46 at the 6:02 mark of the game and did not score a single point from then on out. Their last 11 possessions (10 shots) looked like this:

MISSED LAYUP by Brown, Marshall 5:07
MISSED JUMPER by Watkins, Marcus 5:02
MISSED 3 PTR by Horton, Jason 4:16
MISSED 3 PTR by Gardner, Thomas 3:28
TURNOVR by Horton, Jason 02:33
MISSED FT SHOT by Young, Kevin 1:45
MISSED 3 PTR by Gardner, Thomas 0:50
MISSED LAYUP by McKinney, Jimmy 0:41
MISSED 3 PTR by Brown, Marshall 0:12
MISSED 3 PTR by Watkins, Marcus 0:04
MISSED 3 PTR by Gardner, Thomas 0:00

I don't know what else to say, other than WOW!

A win is a win and we'll take them any way we can get them!

Some quick hits:

- A&M was terrible from the free throw line again going 6 of 11. That is 22-46 in the past three games.

- Dominique Kirk played all 40 minutes last night.

- Joseph Jones only had 8 points and 5 boards last night on 3 of 7 shooting in 33 minutes. He fouled out and was a non-factor all night long.

- The 5 starters Kirk/Law/Jones/Pompey/Walker played 169 of the 200 minutes. Carter (16) and Kavaliauskas (10) were the only guys getting significant minutes off the bench.

- One of the funniest moments of the evening last night came when Pompey tried to lob an entry pass into Kavaliauskas that somehow clanked off the rim before AK could get to it. The pass was so bad it spawned this text message from Bryan Brown - "Pompey with what will later be awarded 'worst pass of the season'". It was classic Pompey. The announcers even pondered, "Will that be a missed shot or a turnover?"

Pompey Foul Update - Marlon only had 2 fouls in his 33 minutes of action - perhaps this stat is played out at this point. Come on Marlon, help me out.

Bizarre Rotation of the Game - Eddie Smith did not play again. I do not know if he made the trip with the team. Martellus also only played 3 minutes.

Bizarre Stat(s) of the Game - Missouri in the second half - shot 27% from the field in going 8 of 29. This also included 0 for 9 from behind the arc.

Looking Ahead:

The Aggies face Nebraska on Saturday at Reed Arena (3:00 ESPN+ / Ch. 51 in Houston).

With every one of these late season games the Aggies are winning, the next game becomes that much bigger and Saturday's game is no exception. Nebraska is a solid ball club this year and will give Old Army all they can handle.

If they can find a way to knock off the huskers on Saturday and guarantee themselves no worse than a .500 finish in the league for the second straight season, you can not be disappointed, no matter the outcome from that point forward.

I just hope they can take care of business on Saturday and not get caught looking ahead to the Longhorns who come to town right after Nebraska.

Despite all of the optimism I spew in these notes, I didn't think we'd be sitting here talking about a 4 game winning streak and the guys in maroon and white sitting at 7-6 in the league with 3 left to play.

Amazing.

Big 12 Standings
Kansas 11-2
Texas 10-2
Oklahoma 9-4
Colorado 7-5
Texas A&M 7-6
Nebraska 6-6
Texas Tech 6-7
Kansas State 5-7
Iowa State 4-8
Oklahoma State 4-8
Missouri 4-9
Baylor 2-11

If Nebraska knocks off Colorado tonight in Lincoln, the Aggies will be tied for 4th place in the league with both Colorado and Nebraska. That will make Saturday's game in College Station that much bigger.

You already own the tiebreaker with CU and you would obviously want to own it with Nebraska as well.

Big XII games this week.

Tonight

Colorado at Nebraska - 7:00
Texas at Kansas State - 7:00 ESPN2
Oklahoma State at Iowa State - 8:00 ESPN+ (Ch. 51 in Houston)

Saturday, Feb. 25

Missouri at Colorado - 11:30 ESPN+
Texas Tech at Oklahoma State - 12:00 ABC
Iowa State at Baylor - 12:30 ESPN+ (Ch. 51 in Houston)
Kansas State at Oklahoma - 3:00 ESPN+
Nebraska at Texas A&M - 3:00 ESPN+ (Ch. 51 in Houston)
Kansas at Texas - 8:00 ESPN - BIG 12 GAME OF THE YEAR!

As you were.
-sb