She's a heart-breaker, she's a love taker,
She can break a heart and take all the love she needs.
Missouri lost a true heart-breaker last night in overtime. After expending so much energy — first to get back into the game, then to take the lead late — a series of missteps and ridiculously clutch plays conspired to send the game into an extra period, and the Tigers just didn't have any energy left.
Sure, you can point to the 3 that shouldn't have counted. (A ridiculous rule, by the way — we can stop play to review whether a shot was a 2 or a 3, but we can't do the same to determine whether it should be a zero or a 3?)
But I say point instead to the mental slip of fouling with a lead and 14 seconds on the clock, or the missed free throw to make it a two-score game, or risking a scramble drill under the basket by throwing the ball back into play, instead of letting it go out of bounds, thus forcing the Hoyas to inbound and run an offense with less than 5 seconds on the clock.
Truth be told, Georgetown had the better backcourt and possibly the better frontcourt (Mizzou was out-rebounded offensively — big surprise — and outscored in the paint, as well), and that proved to be the case in overtime. Mizzou had to win the game in regulation with the frenzy it displayed, but failed to do so. Say goodbye to the top 10 for a while.
Other thoughts:
- Our Washingtonian opponents both posted dominating home victories. It's hard to get a read on how good Friday's opponent, Washington State, really is. The Cougars have looked impressive so far, but have played nobody of note. Their best win is a road victory over a 1-3 Fresno State team.
- The Big 12 is the only conference still undefeated at home (last year, the conference only lost one home game in more than 100 tries), although Texas Tech sure did its best to screw that up by trailing Oral Roberts for large chunks of the game. Meanwhile, Colorado got back to .500 against UTPA.
AP Ranking = 5
ESPN/USA Today Ranking = 5
Overall Record = 6-1
RPI = 13
SOS = 18
Signature Wins (RPI 1-30) = none
Quality Wins (RPI 31-100) = James Madison, Virginia Tech
Bad Losses (RPI 101 or greater) = none
- James Madison (5-1) | RPI = 91
- Virginia Tech (4-2) | RPI = 46
- Presbyterian (2-4) | RPI = 106
- No. 24 Gonzaga (4-2) | RPI = 161: Win over Eastern Washington (86-57)
-
No. 1 Duke (6-0) | RPI = 12
- Texas Southern (1-5) | RPI = 162
- Emporia State (3-3*)
-
Washington State (5-0) | RPI = 128: Win over Sacramento State (84-36)
- Alcorn State (0-5) | RPI = 331
- Loyola Chicago (7-0) | RPI = 70
- No. 16 Florida (5-1) | RPI = 21
- No. 23 UNLV (6-0) | RPI = 3
- UMKC (4-1) | RPI = 251
- North Florida (3-3) | RPI = 80
-
Savannah State (1-7) | RPI = 325: Loss at Stetson (64-69)
- Oklahoma State (5-1) | RPI = 138
-
Colorado (3-3) | RPI = 279: Win over Texas-Pan American (83-64)
-
Texas Tech (5-3) | RPI = 155: Win over Oral Roberts (86-82)
- No. 8 Missouri (5-1) | RPI = 52: Loss to No. 14 Georgetown (102-111 in overtime)
- Texas A&M (5-1) | RPI = 210
- No. 10 Baylor (5-0) | RPI = 65
- No. 4 Kansas (6-0) | RPI = 8
- Nebraska (4-2) | RPI = 169
- Iowa State (6-0) | RPI = 25
- Oklahoma (3-3) | RPI = 220
- No. 20 Texas (5-1) | RPI = 10
*Division II