It had to happen eventually, and it did Wednesday night at Mizzou Arena when the Texas A&M Aggies snapped Missouri's 32-game homecourt winning streak with a 77-74 victory.
Mark Turgeon's hoopsters took the game to the Tigers from the opening tip, with no hint of intimidation by MU's "40 minutes of chaos". A&M consistently passed over Mizzou pressure for easy scores in the early stages of the first half. As poorly as Missouri executed, they managed a 37-36 lead at halftime.
To start the second half, the Tigers probably played as well as they have all season and sprinted to an 9-pont lead, 55-46, by the second media timeout. For those watching, the next 8 minutes were agonizing: the Tigers went scoreless and fell behind by eight with just over a minute to play. I've seen sicker dogs get well (MU v Iowa in the KC preseason tourney with Gilbert, Rush, Johnson & Paulding).
With 1:o6 to go, Mizzou mounted a furious comeback that fell short at the buzzer when J.T. Tiller's 3-pointer to tie clanked off the front iron.
The loss was Coach Mike Anderson's fourth straight against the Aggies, not having notched a "W" against A&M since coming to MU; and it was Missouri's sixth straight defeat to A&M.
Mizzou slips to 4-3 in Big 12 play (16-6 overall), and A&M goes to 5-3 (16-6), almost guaranteeing MU a Thursday game in Kansas City to open first round play in the conference tournament. As disappointing and troubling as was Missouri's second half drought, the intensity and desire the Tigers displayed in the last minute were reminiscent of the desperate energy they showed last year; and that may, in time, help define this team's identity.
After the Illinois game, I saw the Tigers as a .500 team in conference; and I worried this game might mark end to the streak, although I felt they might stretch the run until Texas came to town. To finish with a winning Big 12 record MU must sweep Nebraska, Iowa State and Colorado to offset probable losses to KU and Texas at home and to K-State and Baylor on the road.
Nevertheless, for a squad overpopulated with underclassmen, this team may have learned how good they can be. The scoreless 8 minutes was the result of playing too carefully, not forcing the action and failing to attack on offense, ultimately putting the Tigers in a panic mode as the shot clock wound down. They quit passing, quit moving, quit screening and cutting, seemingly afraid to lose rather than battering a dazed opponent that was sagging on the ropes. Then, with no realistic hope of winning, Anderson's troops manned up with a maniacal counterattack that almost succeeded in defending the home turf. It is that kind of fervor that carried MU to the NCAA regional finals last year and the kind of emotion with which it must play in the next month to finish off a season for which few had realistic expectations of more than a modest showing.
Again, Missouri fans tend to become enraptured with surprising success and then seem stunned when a game like this one ends in disappointment, fraught with bewildering consternation and befuddlement regarding the team's uneven performance. But there are reasons for the spotty play.
We are young. And we are MU.
